Harry Potter and the Iron Knowledge
by Baronvonblack
Summary: Sirius pulls a favour and gets Tony Stark to look after Harry over the summer, where he finds what could be the power the dark lord knows not as in a freak accident Tony's knowledge was copied to Harry's brain.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: A movie Iron Man crossover. I was happy doing my other story, but this little idea couldn't leave me – in my head I had a picture of Death Eaters attacking when suddenly Iron Man flies in and starts kicking ass. Set after the first film and through to the second hopefully, does not follow the timeline of Harry Potter as the novels are set in the 90s – i.e. technology is ahead. If review response is good I'll happily continue without interruption from other muses.

-IM x HP-

"Where are we going, Mr Hogan?" Harry looked out the window in astonishment. England hardly had the best weather in the world, and though he was used to the drizzly grey skies and occasional bursts of blue skies this was an amazing contrast.

"You don't need to be so formal with me," the man said with a grin that had not disappeared since escorting him from the airport. "It's just Happy. We're going to Tony's home."

_I can see why. _"How does Mr Stark know my godfather?"

"Tony's met a lot of people over the years, it's part of his job to be in the public eye."

Harry relaxed further into the plush leather seats of the limousine. This was a far cry from the harsh environment of Privet Drive. Thankfully he had only been there a month, though it was the toughest month he had ever had at that place and that was saying a lot. Every morning till afternoon, he was forced to do chores, and the rare opportunity he had spare time Dudley decided to make his presence known, having put on lots of weight since he became a boxer. And boy, did he feel it. He had no rest at night either, plagued by dreams of Cedric dying in the graveyard, followed by the cold, chilling laughter of Voldemort…

"So, you in high school?" Happy asked.

"Yes sir, I go to a private school in Scotland." Harry answered honestly.

"Enjoy it there?"

"Very much so sir."

"Hmm, your parents must be proud of you."

"My parents died in a car crash, sir, I live with my aunt and uncle…" the Hogwarts student gasped in astonishment as they drove up to Tony's mansion. "Mer… bloody hell! Is this where Mr Stark lives?"

"Yep, this is Tony's crib, nice place huh?"

If there was ever a bigger understatement Harry didn't know it.

As they drove up, a stunning woman waited to greet them, with gorgeous, fiery red hair.

Harry went for the door but Happy beat him to it, opening it for him. "I'll handle your luggage."

The woman smiled at him as she raised her hand for him to shake. "Hello Mr Potter, I'm Virginia Potts, Mr Stark's secretary."

"We all call her Pepper!" Happy added as he struggled to bring out Hedwig's cage.

"It's just Harry, ma'am," he insisted as he shook her hand.

"Harry, your room is up the left stairway to the end of the corridor. Have you had any lunch?"

As if on cue his stomach began grumbling – he looked up in embarrassment.

Pepper laughed. "Come on in Harry."

She lead him to the kitchens. "JARVIS, could you fix up our guest some food?"

"_As you wish ma'am, are you a vegetarian sir?"_

"Holy Merlin!" Harry jumped back in shock, nearly fumbling for his wand when he realised it was in his trunk and it wouldn't be exactly a good idea. "Who was that?"

"That's JARVIS, our computer AI, he maintains the house."

"Really?" That was extraordinary, he knew what AI were since Petunia and Vernon liked to turn the television on loud when the news were on and his cupboard hadn't exactly had a thick door. As far as he knew no one had made anything like that. "Um… no, I'm not vegetarian."

"_Very well, commencing meal preparation."_

Harry watched in fascination as the kitchen began operating itself via mechanical hands – in just a minute a strange-looking meal had appeared on the table.

"Well dig in; I'll be back in a moment."

As Pepper left, Harry poked the food with his fork, before trying a nibble. It certainly tasted strange but in a good sort of way, and it was much better than what the Dursleys fed him. He began eating ravenously, that small meal on the plane had been nowhere near enough, and soon enough settled back in contentment. "Um…JARVIS?" Harry called, feeling like an idiot.

"_Yes, sir?"_

"What exactly was that?"

"_A composite dish featuring all the nutrients necessary for a lunchtime meal."_

So that was why he felt so full. He took the plate up, dropping it in the sink and watched in amazement as a nozzle came out and automatically started cleaning it.

Well. He shouldn't have been surprised by all of this. Considering he had been in a secret magical society, what else was new?

-IM x HP-

AC/DC music turned up to the max and the roar of a powerful Audi sports car alerted the residents of the Stark mansion that its owner was back, bar one sleeping wizard.

Dressed in a sharp, crisp light white suit with his signature sunglasses, Tony Stark looked every inch the billionaire hotshot playboy he was, stopping the car with a screech as Pepper ran out to meet him. "Where were you?" she demanded as he got out, finishing off his cinnamon bun. "He arrived an hour ago!"

"Oh, you know how the bureaucratic crap goes," he dismissed; throwing the bun packet away (Pepper hastily grabbed it). "So what's the kid doing now?"

"He ate lunch and now he's sleeping; apparently he doesn't use air travel much…"

"Hey JARVIS."

"_Welcome home sir."_

"Huh, Sirius said that the kid was a pro with air travel," Tony mused as the two headed to the gym where Happy was currently working out, throwing punches at a bag. "Hey Happy! What do you make of our guest?"

The bodyguard finished off his set of punches before turning to face them. "Pretty quiet kid. Kept calling me 'sir' when I told him to call me Happy. Says his parents are dead and that he goes to a private school in Scotland."

"Huh, so rich, posh and stuck-up…"  
"Tony!" Pepper scolded.

"JARVIS, could you please run a search on every private school in Scotland, query Harry Potter?"

"_Understood sir, search will take approximately eight minutes."_

Pepper frowned. "I thought you knew his godfather…"  
"Yes, I also know his godfather is part of some old posh family, I met him a while ago while I was doing a seminar in London on integrated circuits…"

"Let me guess, you met him in an English pub," Pepper asked sarcastically.

Tony narrowed his eyes at her in mock annoyance. "A pub is a perfectly good place to meet people!" He insisted. "But aside from that about a week…or a month, my memory's a little fuzzy, we had quite the party. You know, you don't get to know a guy better unless you're philandering, drinking vodka and drunk off your cahoots. How do you think me and Rhodey became such good friends?" he began chuckling but at Pepper's stern look quickly shut up. "Apart from that, I don't know a thing about him except that about a week ago he posted me asking me to take care of his godson Harry. Said he went through a 'devastating event' and needed some time away from it all."

"And you agreed?" Pepper cried out in indignation.

"Well, I couldn't let him leak any pictures to the press, they've seen me naked too many times anyway. So anyone else want to volunteer something? No? Okay, if anyone needs me I'll be in the basement."

"Wait Tony…"

"What's up Pepper?"

Pepper narrowed her eyes as her sharp mind recalled the odd things. "When he heard JARVIS speak, he said 'holy Merlin', and then reached for something in his pocket."

"Huh." Tony stated. "Didn't know anyone other than naked pagans in the forest swore by a mythological medieval character."  
_"Actually sir, the character of Merlin pre-dates the Arthurian legends…"_

"Don't want to hear it JARVIS," he interrupted. "Happy, you notice anything weird he was carrying?"

"Oh hell yeah. He had a broomstick, an owl, what looked like black robes coming out of his trunk…"

"Sounds like he's going for the whole shish-kabob."

"_Search completed, sir. There is no record of a Harry Potter in any private school in Scotland." _

Tony frowned in thought. "That's not surprising. JARVIS, run another search on the kid, and pull up anything you can for me, date of birth, potential criminal background, parents, closest relatives, addresses…"

"_As you wish sir."_

As Tony walked out, he added offhandedly, "tell me when he's awake, will you?"

-IM x HP-

WHAM! A massive crash suddenly awoke Harry as he bolted up, pulling his glasses on. He briefly thought Death Eaters were attacking before realising that he was far away from all that. Putting on his jacket, he got out of bed and walked down the stairway, following the source of the sound, which was coming from the basement.

As he walked down, he saw a large glass wall with a digital keypad by the door – as he didn't know the pin he watched in fascination as a man in his late thirties or forties was using his wrench to smash a pipe, before setting it down. He connected the pipe to a long plastic tube, before turning the wheel – there was a hiss as a blue glow began shooting through it and into a thick metallic circle. The circle began to glow a bright blue before turning white, and to Harry's amazement the man unscrewed a similar but thinner circle from his chest, except that one's light was slightly dim, and put the fresh one in.

The man raised it up, and regarded it for a moment, before noticing Harry standing outside. "JARVIS, could you let the kid in?"

_Kid? _Harry thought indignantly as the keypad beeped and the door slid open. "Good afternoon, sir. I'm…"

"Harry Potter." Tony noted as he set down the circle. "And jeez, don't call me sir, only JARVIS calls me that, it's Tony, or Mr Stark if you're a politician. Come here for a second."

Harry walked forward as Tony stood up, leaning back on his bench casually as he regarded him, sipping on a weird green shake.

There was silence for a moment, before Harry spoke uneasily. "You know my…"

"Those clothes don't fit you, what, are they hand-me-downs?" Tony asked, but before Harry could reply in embarrassment, he continued. "You're too skinny, especially for a teen, what, you weigh…"  
"I'M NOT SKINNY! AND MY CLOTHES FIT ME FINE!" Harry shouted in anger.

"Uh-huh, right. JARVIS, please make a note for Pepper to go shopping with him for a complete set of new clothes, also grab a blood sample while he's asleep and check for nutrient deficiencies. Make sure he gets the right amount of food so he doesn't look like a walking zombie in a couple of months."

Harry began spluttering, trying to think of something to say, but could only visibly fume.

"And yes, I know your godfather, we go way back." Tony laughed. "Good times. Called in a favour and asked me to look after you, can't say any of us have looked after a teen before. JARVIS, which of our employees have teenage daughters?"

Harry blushed red. "Wait…what?"

"Actually, that can wait, you need to grab some dinner. I ordered Chinese takeout so you don't have to eat the gunk JARVIS gives you…"

"_Sir, the meals I prepare are more than sufficient…"_

"Yeah, yeah, I know JARVIS I'm drinking one of your shakes now – go on up Harry, you're just in time to catch the rest of our small family, uh, unit having dinner. I'll be up in a moment. Another thing, don't come down here if I'm not here already."

"Okay, then si…Tony." Harry quickly corrected.

Tony smiled. "That a boy. Now go on." As Harry went up, Tony sat down at his computer and opened up the new box that JARVIS had sent him. "So what can you tell me about him?"

"_Full name, Harry James Potter, parents' names unknown, lives with relatives in 4 Privet Drive, Surrey, specifically a Petunia and Vernon Dursley with their son Dudley Dursley. Vernon Dursley is employed at Grunnings Drills and manages his own branch of the business."_

"Huh," Tony commented as he saw the picture of Harry's uncle, then Dudley. "Guess being skinny doesn't run in the family." They could certainly afford to feed him… so why didn't they?

"_Harry's first years of primary school test scores indicate talent and intelligence, however, after a certain amount of time there is a noticeably sharp decline in results."_

Tony frowned. "So he suddenly out of the blue got dumb, an extremely unlikely occurrence – or something happened to cause his test scores to change.

"_After primary school however I can find no additional record of learning. There is no indication that he is attending high school. Furthermore his name is listed in several social service centres."_

If Tony was expecting something it wasn't this. "Wait, what?"

"_His name appears several times in child service records, however I can find no further information about the incidents. It is as if they have been wiped blank sir."_

"That doesn't sound good; in fact I don't even want to think about the possibility. So someone knew that there was something happening in that household, something that wasn't them playing happy families was enough to warrant child services to visit…" Tony stroked his goatee in thought. "Someone knew, and erased them?"

"_Surely sir there is another reasonable explanation, perhaps neglectful management…"_

"When it comes to child services JARVIS it's usually pretty black and white. There's no way anyone would 'neglect' to put down that a kid was being abused or neglected by their guardians. It seems pretty obvious to me. Someone knew. Someone goddamn knew, and pulled strings to get them erased. I'm thinking some sort of higher up, some Government guy. That sounds pretty farfetched but politics is a crazy thing. The kid's record is patchy, way too patchy, that just screams cover up. How he's important and why there's some cover up, God knows." Tony sighed, massaging his temples. "Crazy old bureaucrats will do anything to save their ass."

-IM x HP-

Several minutes later Harry was sitting at the table, eating from a box of instant Chinese food – he had craved fast food when he was a child, and dug into it enthusiastically.

"Easy there Harry," Pepper laughed. "You don't want to get a stomach ache do you?"

As Harry finished off a chicken wing he looked up. "I'm sorry, it's just I don't get to eat fast food very often. I've always wanted to try Chinese takeout."

Happy gaped. "No way! What about McDonalds? You tried that?"

The boy shook his head.

"Subway?"

Again no.

"Taco Bell? What about KFC, you must've tried KFC…"

No either of them.

"Don't encourage him Happy; you shouldn't eat fast food that often anyway."

Happy sighed. "Fine. But you know Tony loves his fast food. Don't forget the first thing he did after he escaped from those terrorists kidnappers is order an…"

"Happy!" Pepper scolded.

Harry's head shot up. "Wait, Tony was kidnapped by terrorists?"

Pepper sighed, giving Happy a 'look what you've done now' gaze. "Yes. It's been a while now, but when he was in Afghan making a weapons presentation he was kidnapped by terrorists who tried to force him to make a missile."

Harry doubled back – this day seemed full of surprises. "So his company makes weapons?"

"Not anymore, after returning from Afghan he shut down the weapons branch of Stark Industries," Pepper explained gently. "So now that you've met him what do you think of him?"

Harry struggled to find the right words. "He's a little…"  
"Eccentric? Yeah, don't we all know? Don't worry; he treats everyone mostly the same, and you'll know when you've pissed him off." Happy explained.

"… Blunt. Actually." Harry finished.

"It's not his worst trait," Pepper noted. "It makes him pretty refreshing sometimes…"

"Aside from knowing he's a genius and doing anything and everything he wants without fear of the consequences?" Happy inquired.

Pepper smiled. "Aside from all that. Anyway, enough talking behind my boss' back, it seems he's not coming up so I'll get him."  
"You usually just bring him the takeout while he works."

"We usually don't have a guest," Pepper retorted.

Harry finished the last of his noodles before standing up, wanting to make himself useful. "It's alright, I'll get him."

As he walked down the stairs, he yelped and ducked as suddenly a burst of white energy fired and destroyed the glass wall.

"_It appears that fixing the fluctuations in energy conversion has also greatly increased the powers of the hand repulsors, sir."_

"Huh. JARVIS, redirect the extra energy from the power couplings in the hands towards the chest. That'll decrease charging time should I need to fire my chest repulsor." Suddenly he looked up, noticing Harry with his hands raised in front as a defence. "Uh...that was a flight stabiliser."

_Didn't sound like it. _"Right... um Tony, Pepper and Happy are waiting for you upstairs."

"Uh, about that, sorry, looks like I'll be busy for the rest of the night, if you don't mind could you bring me my box of takeout?"

Harry however was focused on the small glowing white circle. "If you don't mind Tony, what exactly is that?"

The inventor was focused on what looked like a robotic arm, adjusting the complex circuits inside with a screw. "That... is a miniaturised Arc Reactor."

"What's an Arc Reactor?"

"Don't keep up with much do you?" Tony asked rhetorically. "It's a clean energy source, I had a big one powering my factory but that was trashed by an experimental robot a few months ago. You can have that one."

Harry blinked. "Wait... what?"

"I'm going to make some more of them to power my...power my, uh, robotic, prototype...things." He finished lamely before quickly regrouping. "Anyway, I'm not nostalgic, so you can have it, just make sure you don't go selling it to anyone like Russia or North Korea or I am gonna be pissed."

"I don't think I should..." Harry picked it up and examined it curiously, but yelped when a spark shot out and hit him. "Ouch!"

The Arc Reactor started to send out small, fluctuating sparks. Tony had turned around in absolute surprise. "Whoa. That's never happened before." He thought aloud, looking at it, before reaching out to take it. "Is there some kind of interfere..."

ZAP! The Arc Reactor suddenly glowed hot white, before sending out a large burst of lightning, striking both Tony and Harry at the same time. They both let go simultaneously as a strand of energy shot down through Tony's body, through his chest's Arc Reactor and into Harry before the reverse happened.

They were both thrown back several feet by the force, and knocked unconscious.

-IM x HP-

Glimpses and flashes flitted through Tony's mind like a swarm of bees buzzing around a flower field. While this was not an abnormal occurrence, as his mind moved extremely fast, and he often designed and redesigned things in his head, the fact that these flashes were of memories not of his own meant it was more than a little odd, and that was a serious understatement. He felt like he was sitting in a cinema watching short video clips of someone else's life. He quickly realised that these were Harry's memories, and then realised that these were a lot weirder than he guessed Harry's life was. A hell of a lot weirder.

There was a sound in the distance now, it sounded like someone was calling his name...

"Tony!"

The billionaire opened his eyes and adjusted quickly to the lights, smiling at the person over him. "Hi, Pepper."

"Are you crazy?" She screeched. "Doing another one of your experiments while Harry was in the room? He's just a teen for crying out loud!"

Tony winced. "Pepper...headache. And for your information, that was not caused by an experiment, rather it seems like some sort of accident."

"With you Tony everything is an accident," a familiar and light-hearted voice said.

The billionaire craned his head. "Hi Rhodey."

His best friend crossed his arms, looking at him thoughtfully. "When I heard you were in hospital you can understand why I was freaked out, something big enough to take out Iron Man?"

"For your information, I wasn't using the suit, I feel fine, and..."

"Iron Man?" A tired voice called out. "Is that what this thing is called?"

The trio turned their heads to see young Harry in a matching bed right next to them. He had pulled away the curtains and sported a similar bandage over his head. In his hand was a notepad, with a surprisingly neat sketch of the layout of an Iron Man suit.

Rhodes gasped. "How does he..."

"Magic," Tony interrupted. "No seriously," he added at Pepper and Rhodes' annoying looks. "I guess bringing two interfering energy sources together especially when magic already casts a disruptive field doesn't really work huh?"

"No, it doesn't." Harry's mind began working at a rate much faster than before. "So, I have your knowledge. And it bumped my IQ points up a bit as well, if my math is right. And I think this time it is."

"Goddamnit, why do I always get the short end of the stick?" Tony grumbled. "Your knowledge is embedded in your memories, I'm trying to mentally sort them out as we speak, uh, and it could take a while. You get any of mine?"

Harry shrugged. "Don't think so."

Completely ignoring the confused looks his companions were throwing him, Tony began a mental check as well as checking himself physically. "Oh yeah Pepper, this isn't what it seems – I feel about the same, Arc Reactor is looking fine, I don't think any personality traits carried over... hey Harry, what's the best drink to make for twins?" His blushing face confirmed it all. "So yeah mostly the same except for extra viewing material. What about you?"

"Hey, can someone explain to us what the hell is going on?" Pepper demanded. "Magic? Viewing material?"

"This isn't something to be discussed in a public hospital," Tony said as he began to pull himself up.

"Tony, wait, the doctors said you needed..."

"JARVIS is more than qualified to take care of me, come on, this really can't wait."

-IM x HP-

In the basement, when Tony had learnt of their new guest he had thought it prudent to cover up the suits' display cases with shutters lest it lead to awkward questions, however now he unveiled them for all to see, including Harry who regarded them with simultaneous astonishment and understanding.

"The Mark III needs some serious repairs," Harry noted as he surveyed the battle damage.

"Yeah I haven't gotten around to that, I've just given the go-ahead to JARVIS to start building the Mark IV," Tony answered. "The time it'll take for me to repair that takes longer for me to build a new suit with three times the firepower. You can do it though, help you get familiar with the suits, knowledge is useless unless put into practice."

"Wait, what?" Rhodes yelled. "You're saying that this kid knows how to work the Iron Man technology?"

"He knows it just as much as I do, since in theory his brain pretty much copied and pasted the information from mine into his," Tony said. "But as an actual suit operator, yeah, that's a little while off."

"Can someone please tell us what this is about?" Pepper asked in absolute confusion. "And please start speaking English?"

It was Harry who answered. "I'd better tell them," he finally spoke up. "It sounds crazy but it's the truth, and it's the only reason this happened. Tony, I'm really sorry about this, I know how dangerous knowing all this is..."

Tony waved his hand in dismissal. "Ah come on, it's not a big deal, you seem like a good kid anyway, maybe this was 'meant to happen' or some other prophetic BS like that."

"Yeah," Harry answered, unsure. "I guess I should start at the beginning then. I guess it started on Halloween, in..."


	2. Chapter 2

In his basement, Tony was setting up a new machine. It was about his height and a sleek black, with a fairly nondescript rectangular shell. He was just finishing off the holographic projector, screwing in the last of the wires before closing it. "JARVIS? Hit it."

"_Yes, sir."_

With a quiet hum, the machine whirred to life. Tony stepped back as a green beam began emitting from the projection screen and watched as it did a full body scan on him.

This took about a minute before a series of floating digits, bar graphs and equations appeared, scrolling in front of his head as he began manipulating the holographic windows, expanding one to get a better look.

"_Analysis complete sir. It appears your hypothesis is correct – you have absorbed some of Harry's magic, and are now what is known in wizard society as a 'squib'."_

"Ah well how about that?" Tony said in astonishment. "Any perks for joining the secret boy scouts club?"

"_It appears that you have added several years to your lifespan and are considerably less susceptible to disease and illness."_

"Not bad," Tony commented as he scrunched up the holographic windows and deleted them. "We'll need to complete a full energy wavelength scan of magic though, see if we can get electronics to work around them, have you finished archiving all of Harry's textbooks?"

"_I have sir, the relevant files are now stored in my database. I will commence a scan on Harry's 'wand' as soon as he returns."_

"Good..." as he sat at his computer and began opening the relevant data, Rhodes came down the stairs, punching in the keypad as he opened the door. "Hey Rhodey," Tony said after craning his head to see who it was.

"You son of a bitch," Rhodes said in annoyance.

"Whoa, what's got your knickers in a twist now?"

"You are pathologically incapable of being responsible..."

"Heard it before."

"Yeah 'cos I was the one who said it, and I'm saying it again. You want to know why? Because not only are you willing to give full access to a teenager who hasn't even started shaving yet your suits you want to get involved in a war that definitely does not concern us! And despite all this you refuse to hand over the Iron Man technology to the US Government!"

"I thought you were against that."

"I was, but now we all heard Harry's story..." It was enough to completely take off-guard both Rhodey and Pepper, who were usually cool and unflappable in the face of pressure or changing circumstances. Not only were they told another world literally existed under their feet but a homicidal maniac who had once murdered Harry's parents and wanted to murder him was back and very likely to take over Britain then attempt to take over the world if he was as tough as Harry made him out to be. "Tanks and fighter jets are one thing Tony, but we're completely in the unknown here! What happens if this isn't a one man job?"

"Iron Man can do the job of an army."

"You're only human Tony. If you die, your knowledge dies with you."

"Correction: if me and Harry die, and that's not likely to happen." Tony answered as he sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. "Look Rhodey, when have I ever let you down?" At his smirk he hastily continued, "Well trust me on this; I'm going to be fine. I'll be around for quite a while, don't you worry, and I'll be happy to defend the US of A at the pleasure of myself. And you, of all people should know how much I love to pleasure myself."

Rhodes burst into laughter at that. "Huh, must've taken you a while to come up with that."

"Two seconds actually, I plan on using it in a speech or something," Tony answered wittily. "Maybe to those ass clowns in congress..."

"Don't," Rhodes warned. "Come on Tony, for being the smartest person in the world you should know it's not smart to insult congress."

"That's 'allegedly' the smartest person in the world, and really Rhodey you need to pull that coal out of your ass, if it were in there for any longer you could end up with a diamond."

"I'm a soldier Tony, I follow orders," the lieutenant retorted. "Anyway where is Harry?"

"I think he's working."

-IM x HP-

"WOOHOOO!" Harry burst through the air at speeds well in excess of what even his Firebolt could do. He spun around, performing complex aerial acrobatics as he did several circuits of the large underground warehouse in the Stark Industries compound, one that had gone unused long before Tony became CEO. For the past month Harry had used it as a research lab and testing facility, and Tony had been generous enough to kit him out with a similar setup to his own basement lab. Harry had spent the first day mapping out a circuit to test handling and performance as well as target dummies to make sure it was the best place possible for testing suits.

Harry prised off the suit chassis, which was essentially only a metal skeleton containing the Reactor and hand and foot repulsors. Thorough testing showed that his initial contact with the Reactor could not be replicated and afterwards he had no problem handling any Arc Reactors. Both Tony and Harry were baffled by the disruption and even now it remained a mystery, one that probably never would be solved.

"SAM, could you please make a note that manoeuvring feels sluggish, especially when doing tight turns, the hand repulsors appear to lack sufficient braking power and the repulsor on the left leg has a tendency of fluctuating above 150 mph," Harry said as he finished putting the chassis away.

"_As you wish Harry." _Tony had also been kind enough to provide him with his very own A.I., SAM, which Harry suspected meant 'Smart-Ass Man' (though it was such an idiotic name he highly doubted it), since unlike JARVIS, SAM had a tendency of occasionally making extremely sarcastic comments. Though JARVIS was very witty he was never as exaggerated as SAM. It also had less of a tendency to state the obvious, something that Tony had never bothered to fix in JARVIS. _"Would you also like to strap an oversized repulsor on the back and visit other planets?"_

"That joke wasn't even funny, plus you clearly got it from JARVIS," Harry answered as he sat down at the computer and began redoing some of his designs.

"_I am not trying to be funny sir."_

"So it's a joke, just not funny."

"_Whatever you say."_

Harry finally rolled his eyes. "There it is again, did Tony deliberately program you to be sarcastic or are you just defective?"

"_There are no flaws within my programming."_

"Huh, make a note for me to kick Tony's ass when I get my prototype online." A warm buzzing in his pocket caused Harry to jump out of his seat in excitement as he pulled the mirror out. "Hey Sirius!"

Sirius' warm face greeted him – his only link back to England. "Hey Harry, how are you enjoying America?"

Harry beamed. "Bloody brilliant, way better than staying with the Dursleys."

His godfather laughed. "I'd have thought so. Look Tony and I go way back, the pub story he always tells is only half-true, we kept in contact right up until your parents had to go into hiding. You'll be safe there, Voldemort won't dare cross into America right now when he's trying to keep a low profile and the American Ministry of Magic is very strict on new arrivals so he won't try sending someone after you."  
"Wait, why wasn't I detained them?"

"They're extremely subtle about it Harry, I bet the very moment you walked into US territory they knew your name, address and had put a tracking charm on you so they knew when you cast a spell in front of muggles."

"Are you serious?" Harry asked dumbfounded before adding hastily, "no pun intended."

"Good save there Harry, yes, but it's not like the British tracking charm. The spell is designed only to go off if you used illegal magic or perform magic in front of muggles who are _unaware_ of magic's existence."

Harry visibly brightened. "That means I can do magic!"

"Damn right it does, as soon as you crossed into American territory you came under American jurisdiction. Fudge would be out of his mind to try anything there."

"So how is everything? He still doubts Voldemort's return then."

"Yes, Fudge is still denying he has returned. He's started a smear campaign against you Harry, and Dumbledore as well. We think that Voldemort's using this time to raise an army."

"I thought so. Guess I'll have to kick his ass again."

At this Sirius burst into a fit of strong laughter, shaking his head in amusement. "I see that Tony has rubbed off on you, that's a good thing, just don't let him influence you too much."

"Hell no," Harry retorted. "So I'll be staying here for the rest of the summer?"

"Or maybe even longer," Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Wait...what? And not go back to Hogwarts?" Harry demanded in shock. "Are you mad Sirius?"

"I know it sounds crazy..."

"Damn right it does! What does Ron or Hermione think about this? Or is this the reason why they haven't responded to my letters?"

He could finally see Sirius rubbing his temples. "That's the thing, Harry. We haven't told Ron or Hermione about this, we've just told them you're in hiding."

Harry seriously wanted to throw the mirror across the room, but he was clever enough to rein in his anger and try to think clearly. "You don't want Voldemort intercepting their letters I guess, or finding out information about where I am from them."

"Exactly Harry," Sirius said in a relieved sigh. "I'm glad you get it and didn't blow up, honestly I don't like it either."

"Then what's the rationale for not letting me go to Hogwarts? It's my OWL year! Wait, did Dumbledore tell me not to go?"

"We can find you a tutor in America or I can send Remus over there to teach you, Merlin knows he needs the vacation. And besides wouldn't you rather stay there with Tony until you need to sit your OWLs?"

A few months ago Harry would have hotly protested, but now he wasn't so sure. Although he enjoyed being with Ron and Hermione, the four of them, Rhodey, Pepper, Happy, Tony and him had become a small family, five including JARVIS. Sometimes he felt distant to Ron and Hermione who had a tendency especially when around each other to act extremely immature and rude, and whenever he interjected Hermione gave him a serious tongue lashing for it. Here, bloody hell, it was actually encouraged. There weren't any secrets between the four of them, nothing too taboo to bring up or throw into the open, and there wasn't anything Tony liked more to do than stir things up. His biting wit had opened Harry up a bit more, to the point of Pepper lamenting that he was making a "mini-Tony on testosterone", and their bickering didn't seem too serious, unless Tony had gone and done something completely stupid, which was always a real possibility, but even then it was a good laugh.

He supposed with what he had to deal with he had to mature a little bit and enjoyed that they didn't treat him like a child especially since he had Tony's knowledge.

"I think...I kind of like it here, Sirius. I want to stay, but I don't want to abandon Britain."

"You're not kiddo, and don't you worry, with the Order here we'll be tracking Voldemort's movements. No one wants you to get involved, they only think you're a child, and want you to be protected," Sirius finished sarcastically.

"Then you sent me here against Dumbledore's orders then."

"Damn straight I did, he wanted us to keep you in the dark and all that to protect you, but with the Ministry poking its nose everywhere even Hogwarts isn't safe now. He still doesn't know you're gone, I've been keeping it covered up with Alastor's help."

"Professor Moody? Why did he help me?"

"Because he's not an idiot like the rest of the Order! I'm sure Dumbledore wants the best for you, but I don't think he considers how trouble seems to follow you around like a magnet, nor the fact that the last times you had to fight for your life were because of events far out of his or your control, not to mention due to your lack of information. If anything's going on, I'll inform you as soon as I can, but in the meantime I'm trying to keep Dumbledore clued out of your disappearance."

"Then he must really be busy."

"Damn straight he is, it'd be the Ministry's worst political nightmare if they realised Voldemort came back, that's why they're so vehement in denying it, and Dumbledore's fighting tooth and nail to get them to reconsider. Look pup, I have to run, I'm trying to keep this all hidden from everyone you see, and I'll contact you again as soon as I can."

"Great and... thanks Sirius."

Sirius winked. "It's what I do pup."

Harry pocketed the mirror. "SAM, also make a reminder to produce a high-tech leg prosthesis." He would have to thank Moody for running interference, without him Sirius would undoubtedly have found it difficult to keep his location hidden.

"_Yes, Harry."_

Wordlessly Harry looked at the parts of the fully repaired Mark III thoughtfully, mentally dissecting it in his mind. With Tony now fully reliant on the Mark IV which packed twice the heat, he had begun upgrading it to match. A more efficient repulsor system was the first of many improvements, though he couldn't really put it to the test until he was fully kitted out in armour and fully protected when he eventually broke the supersonic and hypersonic barrier to really push it to its limits. "Hmm, SAM could you call up the videos of the Mark III in action?"

A holographic box appeared in front of Harry showing the Mark III in action in Sudan. Tony had ordered JARVIS to record their first real combat test of the suit technology and he saw the video first-hand through Tony's eyes as he tracked down and decimated the terrorists.

Pulling up a 3-D figure of the Mark III armour beside it, he watched as Tony got hit by a tank shell and sent crashing down, and flicked his hands, causing the 3-D figure to break up into its individual layers. "I'll redo the actual armour itself first off; I want it to have greater defensive capabilities..." he began manipulating the figure and discarding the armour plates. "We're doing a complete overhaul of the Mark III, I'm discarding the composite shells used by the Seraphim tactical satellite, and I'm going to design my own."

"_That could take some time Harry."  
_"I know, but I want to do it right. In the meanwhile start recalibrating the Mark III's circuitry and sync up with Tony's private database while you're at it, I want to take a look at some of the weapons that he had designed for the Mark IV."

Living in a world literally full of magic and being a teenager did have its uses. He was going to think outside the box and show Tony just how well his fully customised and completely rebuilt Mark III would work.

-IM x HP-

**One month later**

"Okay, here we are!" Harry announced as he brought in several steaming, beautiful dishes for dinner.

"Still can't believe the kid can cook," Rhodey said incredulously as he inhaled the smell of the smoked salmon mouth-wateringly.

"Well you never asked," Harry answered as he began setting knives and forks on the table. "I'll just go get some napkins."

"So Harry's doing pretty well huh?" Rhodes asked as he begun cutting out a piece of the salmon.

"Tony's just a little worried that he isn't around people his own age..." Pepper paused to take a bite of her macaroni cheese. "Wow, this is good... yeah, but I tend to agree with him. He's still a little distant even though he's opened up to us quite a bit, God knows what it'll be like when he's around 15 year old girls."

"You know, I'm surprised that for a hormonal, testosterone fuelled rebel he hasn't tried ogling you in the shower yet."

Pepper choked and started coughing on her food, before hastily swallowing it as she gave him a glare. "Harry is a perfect gentleman, he is British you know! And I doubt he would have the time; he's such a compulsive workaholic, and since Tony's got him employed as his full-time assistant..."

Rhodey began chuckling. "Fine, fine, look, I'm just saying, he still is a teenager, and I remember what was on in all of our minds when we were that age."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Please, we already have one hormonal, testosterone fuelled rebel living here."

"And looks like his show's about to start," Rhodey said as both of them turned to look at the massive TV, showing a camera tracking Iron Man blazing through the air making his way into the stadium.

"The Expo opening's starting?" Harry asked as he returned, and began digging in ravenously. It was a refreshing change for him to actually be able to eat his own cooking.

Rhodey whistled as Iron Man appeared on centre stage. "Every time I see that..."  
"I know, it never stops being wicked," the teenager said as he watched mechanical hands rapidly begin disassembling Tony's suit. "Wow, that's pretty clever, I thought that Tony was just going to announce in his suit."

"That would be the most irrelevant use of the suit I've seen if he did that," Rhodey stated punctually.

"I suppose I shouldn't tell you about that time when he went through Burger King's drive thru fully suited up then," Harry laughed as he watched Tony begin his inauguration speech. "I can't wait to visit the Expo tomorrow; it's always great to check out what other people are designing."

"Still can't compare to when you and Tony put your heads together," Rhodey said cheekily as he watched Tony talk about his accomplishments – and the crowd seemed to be eating it up. "Wow, this'll really blow his head up."

"Honestly, there is no way his head could get any bigger even with magic." As Tony finished his speech and walked off, the three of them returned to their quiet dinner. Pepper and Harry had been given the night off as Tony made his inauguration speech and since Rhodey was coming Harry decided to treat the three of them. Although Harry was secretly planning to return to his lab to finish repairing the Mark V for Tony's use.

The rest of the dinner happened quietly with relaxed conversation in the manner similar to which the four shared. It seemed extremely weird, especially with Harry seeing as he was a teenager, but for all Tony and Rhodey's ribbing about him being a 'kid' he knew they were just joking and treated him basically like an adult. Most of the time anyway.

The quiet was interrupted when Pepper's phone started ringing. She picked it up. "Hey Happy, what's up? Wait, what...?" She stood up from her chair in shock.

Harry froze in the process of picking up the dishes. Pepper was normally unfazed by business happenings so whatever it was it must've been big.

"Okay, I'll be there right away!" Pepper said as she flicked off her phone. "I don't understand, for some reason, it's..." she narrowed her eyes as she saw Rhodey's guilty look. "What the hell is this about Rhodey?"

"It's a hearing on the Iron Man technology, I'm supposed to be testifying against him..."

"You KNEW! You goddamn knew and you didn't even think of giving us a little..."

_Oh bloody hell_. "Look there's no time!" Harry yelled. "Rhodey I guess you'll have to get moving, then."

"It sounded like he was in a car." Pepper frowned.

Rhodey chuckled. "Sounds like him, didn't he get a new Audi recently Harry? I'll have to get back to base then."

"Yeah, that's right, Rhodey you'd better go, Pepper I'll give you access to one of Tony's cars," the wizard said in concern as they went their separate ways. "I can't come with you though; Tony will need me to finish off some of his work for him tomorrow."

-IM x HP-

"Wake up, daddy's home!"

"_Welcome home sir. Congratulations on the inauguration of Stark Expo as well as your recent hearing before the Senate, and might I add it is refreshing to see a video of you with your clothes on."_

"So Harry came in last night?"

"_Yes sir, he has informed me that he too cannot find a viable replacement for the palladium in your Arc Reactor."_

Tony winced as he finished off the rest of the black concoction, and looked underneath his shirt to reveal the jagged black lines running out of his reactor. "Huh, it's beginning to spread now. That's not a surprise; if I couldn't then I doubt he could've."

"_I would like to add sir that Harry has made several impressive improvements to the running of the Mark IV. He would also like to add that he is coming in as soon as you have returned to drop in the Mark V." _

"Huh, at this rate that kid will outdo me," Tony mused. Even he was astonished at how well Harry had embraced Tony's knowledge and used it. The boy spent virtually all of his time tinkering with the suits, and if he wasn't working on his suits he was practicing his magic or reading a spell book. And to add to that he had been trying, unsuccessfully so far, to get magic to work around electronics and consequently Iron Man technology, and somehow fuse the two together. "I'm surprised the palladium has spread so slowly."

"_It appears the magic in your blood is countering the effects of the palladium. At this rate, the palladium toxicity will completely kill you by the time of your birthday next year."_

Tony smirked at this. "Huh, I knew this magic gig would come in handy. That's plenty of time for me and Harry to work on a replacement."

"_Sir, you have tried..."_

"I know JARVIS; still, we've got plenty of time to figure it out."

"_Harry is approaching sir."_

"Thanks JARVIS."

Tony spun around in his chair to face him with a smirk as Harry input his code and came in, looking at him with an 'are you serious' face, though one could tell he was amused. "Please don't tell me you didn't just talk down the entire US senate and walked out of there unscathed."

"You know damn straight I did," Tony answered. "Come on, do you really expect me to bend my ass to some snooty old Republican in a suit? Didn't do it for their generals since I don't bend for snooty assed uniforms, did they really think a hearing would work?"

Harry put down the red and gold case for the Mark V. "Considering how close you and Rhodey are I thought you did it all the time."

"Good God you just made a gay joke." Tony deadpanned as he began clapping. "Well done Harry, I thought you would need another four months and a visit to San Francisco to start making homoerotic innuendos. It seems giving you SAM was a good idea."

"Don't start on SAM, that A.I. acts stupider than JARVIS sometimes, plus his jokes are the worst I've ever heard…"

"_I'm right here sir."_

"See?" Harry pointed out in scathing annoyance. "SAM is too stupid to understand anything above sarcasm or poop jokes, while JARVIS can actually be witty, you'd think a midget who had diarrhoea all his life had created SAM."

"That wasn't as funny as the gay joke, though for the record I have nothing against gays." Tony grabbed the case and began using the computer to scan and make a holographic blueprint of it.

"You mean lesbians," Harry corrected.

"I'm a billionaire playboy; I'm allowed to have a double standard at times." Tony focused as he began looking through the information readings from the case for the Mark V. "Huh, you completely redid the shells for the armour."

"Especially around your limbs, I felt even you're favouring mobility you still need some degree of physical protection," Harry explained. "The original designs you gave me were much too light, that's why it feels slightly heavier though not considerably by much."

"Clever, plus I see you've managed to put more energy through the repulsors."

"Yeah, I think you'll be able to keep yourself in the air for a longer period of time though the simulations SAM ran strongly recommend you keep it to short bursts or jumps."

"Not bad kid," Tony said approvingly. "You're a damn good technical assistant."

Harry smiled as he referred to his official title before frowning. "So about the palladium…"

"Having some magic in my blood will keep me in the land of the living for another year, but I'm probably still going to go through with my plans to make Pepper CEO. I'm going to need more time to research and run simulations on how to counter this thing."

"You plan on keeping it from her?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Hell yeah, she'd just worry unnecessarily, and well, you can't, because legally I own you."

Harry frowned. "Right, are you going to tell her about the whole CEO thing soon at least?"

"You're going to see her before me, you tell her first."

"No! Wait, what? Why am I going to see her first, she's your secretary!"

"Because you are to take a break for the rest of lunch and the afternoon while she takes you shopping."

Harry blinked. "The palladium really is making you barmy."

-IM x HP-

"Hey Harry, what about this?" Pepper asked as she picked out a nice tan shirt. She turned around and rolled her eyes as she saw him once again sitting in his chair scribbling in his notebook. "Goddamnit, you're not making this easy you know!" She growled as she literally began dragging him through the store. "Stop doodling in your notebook?"

"I'm not doodling; I'm redesigning the Arc Reactor to accept a potential alternative to..."

Pepper nearly shrieked, "Can you stop thinking about work for two hours at least?"

Seeing that she was extremely stressed about this, Harry nodded sheepishly as he pocketed his notebook.

She sighed in relief as she rubbed her temples. "Oh God, you can be just as bad as Tony sometimes. Between his self-destructive behaviour and responsibilities..."

"Wait, what was that you said about Tony and responsibilities?" Harry asked cheekily.

Pepper couldn't help cracking into a smile as she began picking out some shirts for him. "Here, what do you think of these?"  
"They look nice," Harry commented.

"JARVIS gave me your measurements to make it easier." Pepper said as she folded them over her arm. "Honestly, it can be stressful being Tony's secretary, most of the time I just sit there fearing what he's going to do next and usually it's me that has to clean up the mess or deal with the consequences."

"And the rest of the time?"

Pepper smiled. "Well, the rest of the time... he's better than any other boss I've worked for."

"Would you ever quit if it got really bad?"

"Maybe... trust me, I've had to deal with a lot, I've always thought about quitting but I've never gone through with it." There was a silence between them other than the usual chatter and bustle of the other customers before Pepper posed a question of her own. "I'd like to know why you keep going to your school; I mean every year you've nearly been killed."

"How is it different to being here?" Harry asked wittily as they both smiled at the inside joke. "But... I don't know, really, I guess that it's the first place I've really considered as home. Every year I can go there and escape from my relatives, and besides, all my friends are there."

"You haven't really told us about your friends Harry."

Harry smiled as he reminisced, the two of them going through the mall. "There's Ron Weasley, he can be real clueless and thick sometimes but he's my guy mate, we talk about sports, girls, you know, just bloke things, plus his family are really nice. Then there's Hermione, she's the brainiest in our year, if there's something you don't know ninety nine percent of the time Hermione knows. But she can be real caring and loyal as well, she constantly mothers us and keeps me out of trouble."

"I can relate to that," Pepper answered. "God knows I feel like Tony's mother sometimes."

"Don't know about that, you two seem to argue like an old married couple," Harry commented as he picked up a particularly cool-looking jacket.

Pepper immediately started blushing. "W-W-What?"

"Don't worry, I'm only teasing," Harry laughed as they walked out, carrying a large number of bags. As they began searching for their car, Harry spotted a group of high-maintenance girls walking past them, and his gaze followed them until they rounded the corner.

He turned around and began blushing also as Pepper started laughing. "It's not what it looks like..."

"Sure," Pepper chuckled. _Wait till Tony hears of this. _"Come on, let's go home."


	3. Chapter 3

**Monaco**

As their limousine pulled up, Harry looked in astonishment at the number of people who were waiting to greet Tony. They were all dressed formally, even Harry in a newly tailored suit, and it was perfect for the warm weather as he held tightly onto Tony's case and watched as the billionaire entrepreneur got out first.

It was extraordinary all the praise and adulation Tony got virtually every day, he might have been the boy-who-lived but Tony Stark was not just a national hero but virtually a national treasure. As their group began heading in, Harry directly behind Happy being Tony's technical assistant the playboy turned around for a moment to speak with him.

"Uh, yeah, Harry I think you're going to have to stay outside."

Harry blinked. "Wait, what?"

"…Yeah, it's a party with alcohol, you know, alcohol and teenagers, don't really mix..."

"I doubt that would stop you, is this because you're still pissed I didn't tell Pepper you were making her CEO?"

"No, no, Happy's waiting outside as well…"

"Happy's not the one toting your case knowing the pin number and how to operate it," Harry said with a smirk.

Tony blinked, looking at him with admiration. "And I thought you were a lost cause kid, come on."

"What, are you serious, you're letting Harry come into the sharks' den?" Pepper cried. "Harry, please don't…"

"Sharks' den, come on, he's lived with me, I'm like a great white. Hello Ms Rushman, you look fantastic," he said, greeting their new secretary as they began walking in.

"Hello Mr Stark, thank you," she replied levelly.

"What's on the agenda today?"

"You have a 9:30 dinner."

"Great, I'll be there 11."

Harry rolled his eyes at this typical Tony Stark answer, giving the new secretary a small nod and smile as their eyes meet before they got led to a table, stopping by to greet many well-wishers and business associates, before following the two towards the bar as they bickered on God knows what. "Hey Tony, watch out for the hammerhead shark," he said cleverly. Tony took a few moments to quickly process it before palming his face in annoyance, just as someone who none of them hoped would turn up began making his way towards them.

"Anthony? Is that you?"  
"Ah, my least favourite person on Earth, Justin Hammer…" Tony said duly, not even bothering to turn around and greet him.

"You know you're not the only rich guy here with a fancy car. You know Christine Everheart from Vanity Fair?"  
Harry tuned his ears out to the rest of the awkward and strained conversation, at least until Pepper said, "You know, she did quite a spread on Tony last year…"

At this Harry struggled to conceal his laughter. "Yeah, quite a spread for…I mean, on, Tony, it was pretty good…"

Both Pepper and Tony struggled to keep from laughing, Tony snorting in his martini as he gave him the surreptitious thumbs up, though Justin Hammer only just got it now when Christine started blushing slightly.

The Hammer Industries CEO turned to him in annoyance. "I'm sorry, who are you? I thought kids weren't allowed in here."

"Don't worry, if they weren't I'm sure more than one of us would be kicked out," and for effect he looked pointedly back at him. "I'm Harry Potter, my godfather is a close personal friend of Tony Stark's and I'm also his technical assistant."

"Assistant, aren't you a little bit young for that?" Justin laughed, not taking him seriously.

However Harry didn't rise to the barb, as he schooled his face into the best Snape impression possibly and sneered. "CEO, aren't you a little idiotic for that?"

"Okay kid I may have let the first one slide but I warn you that whoever the hell you are it wouldn't be wise to tangle with Justin Hammer." He said warningly, sticking his finger at him.

"That's an interesting threat… so Justin, any inventions working lately?"

Before Justin could begin blowing up however Tony jumped in. "Well this is all nice and good but we have to run, our table's waiting, so uh, bye Justin, nice to see you Christine, make sure to ask him why he got his contract revoked."

As the three returned to their table both Tony and Harry started bursting into laughter, Tony even giving him a high five.

"You know that probably wasn't a good idea," Pepper scolded him, "he does own Hammer Industries…"

"That's not exactly threatening," Tony pointed out. "I mean, he already wants to ruin my reputation and legacy, there's not much more he can do short of killing me and even Hammer won't go that far."

"But still, please, be careful who you insult Harry…" Pepper insisted. "It could end you up in a lot of trouble one day."  
Harry smiled at her. "I know Pepper, it's just I hate those kind of people, those arrogant, and completely self-absorbed people who don't care about anyone or anything else except their own interests, like the purebloods in my society, it's the reason we've been so backward for the past few years."

"Wait, does that mean you hate me?" Tony said in a mockingly hurtful tone.

Harry laughed as he turned to look up to the TV. "Hey, your racer's coming fifth Tony."

Tony looked up at the screen also. "Well what do you know?"

"I thought you designed that thing yourself."

"I did, doesn't mean that it's gonna win."

"I thought your inventions always win."

"They do, in the right hands."

"Yours?"

"Don't encourage him Harry!" Pepper scolded. "Honestly, I have so much to deal with as CEO right now, so don't even THINK about walking out to that racecourse."

Tony raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, you got me, I was totally going to replace that racer in a wilful attempt to try and give you a heart attack."

"Every day you come a little closer," Pepper answered cynically as she took a big gulp of her drink.

They watched through the beginning of the race as a waiter arrived with their starters, crispy bread and dips. The three of them ate, watching as the racers completed the first circuit.

"You know I'm becoming a real bad influence on you," Tony stated as he dipped his crisp bread.

Harry gave him a sideways look as he munched on the delicious food. "Honestly? There are some places even I won't go."

"Damn straight you won't, at least not until you're of age."

The teenager could certainly think of many things that Tony was thinking of but chose not to let his mind sink into the gutter with him. "Uh-huh."

"Hey!" Someone from one of the other tables called out. "What is that engineer doing?"  
The three of them turned around, looking at the TV to see a large man in an orange engineer's jumpsuit walking out onto the race course.

Harry gulped as his natural instinct started going off. "Uh-oh."

Tony looked at him. "Uh-oh?"

"Yeah. Uh-oh." Unconsciously he gripped the case tighter, he didn't know why but he had a seriously bad feeling about this...

His instinct soon seemed to be proven right as suddenly the top of the engineer's jumpsuit started burning off, revealing the tell-tale glow of an Arc Reactor – the man powered up as he suddenly wielded bright electrical whips, and had promptly attacked and cleanly sliced through the front of a race car.

Pepper whirled around. "Tony!" she hissed.

Tony however was just sitting there casually; even Harry was up and urging him on the shoulder. "You told me not to think about going on that racecourse."

"Tony, this isn't time for jokes!" Harry snapped. "Come on!"

"First thing, I'm your boss, second thing, Pepper hasn't given me her permission yet."

"Are you nuts Tony? This guy shows up and starts attacking and..."

"Pepper, for Merlin's sake just give him your permission!" Harry fumed angrily.

The redhead shut her eyes, trying to restrain herself. "Okay, fine, Tony, you have permission to go on that racecourse."

"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Tony said with a smile as Harry began pulling him along. "Ouch! Take your hand off or that's coming out of your pay check!"

-IM x HP-

Using his whips Ivan Vanko was enjoying this, he had decimated over half of the racers' cars and still there had been no retaliation, he was prepared to trash some more until something extremely heavy punched him, throwing him into the air as he slid across the gravel, hitting his head on the race barrier.

_Those whips could do some serious damage. _Kitted out in the red and silver Mark V, Tony already felt much safer thanks to the new armour plating scheme Harry threw in as he raised his hand and powered up a repulsor ray.

The white surge of energy was promptly deflected by a whip as Vanko charged forward and reared his right arm, ready to slice straight through Iron Man's armour but Tony wasn't an idiot, he stayed well out of range as he fired another beam then activated his foot repulsors, using his sudden kinetic force to tackle into his enemy and throw him through the barrier.

Iron Man charged another repulsor ray but his arm was struck by the whip, it cut deeply into the armour as his attacker used the other whip to slice into his torso, causing Iron Man to stumble back slightly.

Tony narrowed his eyes as he studied the displays. _The circuits in the arm are fried though the repulsor is still operable, but I can't keep letting this guy deflect them with his whips. _He charged up his repulsors again, rushing forward as he fired them, using them to keep the man off-guard as he struggled to deflect them all with his whips. He managed to get in close enough to do things the old-fashioned way, he quickly used his superior weight to deck him with a powerful punch to the stomach before executing a well-timed front sweep, and throwing the man on his back he quickly reached in and grabbed the Arc Reactor, pulling it out, effectively ending the fight.

The suit's scanners pulled a full digital readout of the Arc Reactor; he looked through its scan on his display. _It's almost an exact replication of my own. Mine is more streamlined and efficient, but if I didn't know better it's like that guy had my dad as his dad._

"Tony!"

The suit gave several whirs as he turned around to see Harry rushing down towards him, observing the damage done to the armour. "How's the Mark V holding up Tony?"

"Not bad Harry," Tony answered, his voice deeper and almost mechanical through the Iron Man helmet before it flicked back. "And you were right by the way, the suit's armour is much better than before."

Harry smiled at the praise before it set into a frown. "Who was that guy?"  
"I don't know, but I intend to find out." Tony replied grimly.

-IM x HP-

"_Query complete sir, Anton Vanko was a Soviet physicist who defected to the United States in 1963. In 1967 however he was accused of spying for the Russians and deported back to the Soviet Union."_

"And his son?" Tony asked with a frown.

"_His son Ivan Vanko, also a physicist was convicted of selling weapons-grade Plutonium to Pakistan and spent 15 years in Kopeysk prison. No further records existence."_

"1963 to 1967..." Harry's eyes narrowed as he recalled the relevant information. "Isn't that when your dad developed the Arc Reactor?"

"Yeah, but he never mentioned anything about anyone helping him."

"History is written by the victors," Harry stated. "The fact he was accused of spying and sent back to Russia is fishy and awfully convenient, but knowing your dad there must've been a reason for it."

"Yeah, my old man was never the petty type. He was always obsessed with his vision of a 'better tomorrow' using technology. Guess we'll never know."

"You're saying he knew about your palladium poisoning?"

Unconsciously Tony rubbed his chest. "Yeah, plus that Arc Reactor was almost exactly like mine, I mean take away some of the bells and whistles and put them up against each other, I'd say that there's not much difference."

Harry continued to frown as he finished processing their conversation, starting from when Tony had returned from the prison. "It doesn't matter whether he was just in your family's betrayal of him. The fact remains unchanged that he could've used his knowledge for good instead of trying to bum off weapons-grade plutonium to the highest bidder. Not to mention he attacked a public racecourse with the intent of harming anyone and everyone. I don't care what he's had to go through, he made his decision."

Tony smiled at him in slight pride until a very familiar voice broken the occasion.

"Tony! What the hell is going on, you told us that no one else would have that tech for at least ten years!"

"Rhodey, hi," Harry beat Tony to the punch as he turned to greet the familiar African-American pilot.

"Hey Harry," Rhodes smiled before turning towards his long-time best friend with a serious look. "Now you mind explaining to me why straight after you assured the US Senate no one else had your Iron Man tech that someone else appeared with it?"

"You know you should hire him," Harry piped up. "Give him the Mark II, let me trick it out and you can take the weekends off from now."

Tony chuckled. "Trust me, Iron Man IS a vacation compared to dealing with bureaucrats every day, no way am I giving it up."

"You treat it like a stupid game Tony! It's not! You don't have to do this alone Tony, but you act like only you can carry the weight of the world on your shoulders! Imagine how many lives you could save if you handed the Iron Man technology over to the US Government!"

"Hell no!" Surprisingly it was Harry who spoke up, usually he stayed out of Tony and Rhodey's arguments. "Rhodey you have no idea what would happen if Iron Man made its way into the US Government. A weapon that powerful CANNOT end up in the hands of politicians to be argued and negotiated over! Have you considered what will happen if the US were to sell the Iron Man tech to its allies or even to the world?"

"There's no possibility the Government would do such a thing..."

"This is different Rhodey, no other weapon has been more publicised since the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, once you put it in a position where a corrupt bureaucrat or politician looking for a bargaining tool can gain access to it and once they've pulled a few strings they could sell it to anyone! We're not just talking about American interests anymore, the world can't survived an Iron Man war just like it can't survive a nuclear war." Harry stated sagely. "Do you really think our Senators are that strong? Do you think they could resist the temptation of a quick billion, or even to use the weapon themselves to attack factional enemies? The temptation is just too great for anyone; more people would be killed than saved by making Iron Man available."

Rhodes took all of this in before eventually sighing. "Look... you're right, Harry. I'm sorry, but if I don't convince the Government soon, they'll come barging in here with an army to try and take your suits."  
"Harry here is worth three armies," Tony said, gesturing towards him. "Once he figures out how to get his magic working synonymously with Iron Man tech, then ten."

_Or using the suit to power and enhance my magic._ Harry thought, as his mind went to his new hypothesis. First he would need to get electronics working around magic, previous scans had shown magic's wavelength to give out a sort of field highly similar to electromagnetic fields, it would take a few weeks before he got his first prototype up and running on somehow deflecting the field, or even using magic as a power source. "I don't think even the US would barge in here to try to take your suits – at least, not yet."

"Even so, the Senate's going crazy over this," Rhodes stated. "I'll trust you guys for now, but if something else happens…"

"It won't," Harry assured as he walked off, intending to finish his remodelling of the Mark III tonight.

Rhodes whistled as he walked off. "Damn, that's some kid we got there Tony."

"Don't I know it." Tony grinned. "It's a real shame he can't attend my birthday bash."

"No way Tony, there are just some things you shouldn't put a kid through," Rhodey laughed.

"I'm gonna get you back for that comment. Yeah, so I was thinking, since he hasn't really made any friends of his own age or really met anyone his own age…"

Rhodey looked at him incredulously. "Oh no. Whatever it is you're thinking I know I'm not gonna like it."

-IM x HP-

"_Prototype armour configuration complete. Would you like me to archive the new composite metal in the joint private server between me and JARVIS Harry?"_

"No, keep it in our private files for now." Harry grunted as he took in a deep breath, and began shifting the newly made armoured plates from the assembly line to their testing stations. Lots of heavy lifting in addition to a healthier and fuller diet had given Harry a much toned and noticeably more defined physique. "If Tony wasn't perceptive enough to see that designing his own composite shell specifically for the Iron Man armour was better than bumming off one from another project then I'm certainly not telling him."

"_Analysis complete. The proposed new shell in conjunction with the armour weave that you have designed has noticeably greater structural integrity and weight than that of the Mark IV unit."_

"Good. Have you finished scanning the whips that Ivan Vanko used on the Monaco racecourse?"

"_Yes, Harry. I have fabricated a pair per your request for testing against the armour configuration."_

"Good." Harry quickly grabbed a set of goggles and donned them. "Then hit it!"

There was a clunk as the new plates of armour were rapidly assembled by robotic hands into a hollow Iron Man framework, before it was rolled out. There was a bright flare of light as the machines began throwing weapon after weapon at it, moving until it was far away enough for high-explosive and armour-piercing shells to be used without harming Harry.

After about fifteen minutes of continuous testing, the framework rolled back with a few noticeable dents, cracks and deep gashes, but Harry noted with approval that overall the armour was in good condition and none of the weapons had actually properly penetrated the suit. "Not bad, SAM make a note to seal up the circuitry against electrical and electromagnetic interference, also add in the helmet the neural band I designed that'll hopefully counter psychic and mental intrusions." He had read in one of his many magic books which he had owled off an order form for that wizards and magical creatures were capable of mental-based attacks, possibly the reason he occasionally peeked into Voldemort's brain. From the information he read it seemed he shared a literal revolving door with the Dark Lord and while the extreme distance between them had weakened the connection it was still very much present.

Voldemort was still very much alive, ready to kill his friends and no matter what happened Harry was going to stop him.

"_Sir, would you also like to add ionic channels?"_

"The whips? Sorry, not my thing, it'd be more Pepper," Harry said dismissively. Suddenly he paused as a better idea came to him. "Actually…" he called up the holographic figure of the suit, manipulating it and adding the necessary changes. "This might be a little better, and more efficient."

"_As you wish Harry, now rendering." _

The final holographic figure gained an overall chrome finish. "Hmm… gonna need a little change in colour."

"_Pink, Harry? I never knew you were the type."_

"That one was kinda funny, not really though." The hiss of the front door made him turn around with surprise. "Ms Rushman? I didn't think you knew of this location." Hastily he made the holographic figure disappear.

Pepper's secretary regarded him with a cool face. Secretly, Natalie Rushman gave him an odd feeling in the pit of his gut. Not like she was planning to betray them, but he felt there was a hell of a lot more than it seemed. "Mr Stark has requested for me to drive you to the Stark Industries building in Malibu."

Harry's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"He also requested me to specify it as a direct order."

Harry regarded her warily, before turning back to SAM. "Continue research on our…little project. When I close the door behind me institute normal security levels and precautions."

"_Understood, Harry."_

A minute later Harry found himself in Natalie's car as she quietly drove him towards the Stark Industries building. "So…how do you like working for Tony and Pepper?" he asked awkwardly.

She cast a sideways glance at him. "It is interesting," she admitted. "Mr Stark was not what expected."

"That's putting it mildly Ms Rushman, with the level of interest he's shown you no doubt you think that he's a narcissist, pervert and a sexual harasser." Harry stated bluntly, cutting right through the bull.

The only indication of this Natalie gave was a raised eyebrow. Oh, she was good. "Does Mr Stark know you think this of him?"

"Let's cut with the stories," Harry snapped bluntly. "I may just be a teenager, but give or take a few times I know when someone's feeding me a line and I know when people are keeping things from me. And I know you're more than you seem Ms Rushman. I dug deeper into your background and your story doesn't add up, but I'm not here to insinuate anything. Just hear me out, whoever you are, Tony is a great person, an important person. He's not a perfect person but bloody hell no one was. It doesn't matter because history doesn't remember the little flaws, and the thing is despite all of his little flaws Tony IS America, he is the American way personified, like how Mark Twain despite all of his criticisms of the American system is the quintessential American. Everything he does to this day has been for the good of the American people, heck for all of the people, it doesn't matter if he's a narcissist or sexual pusher, what matters is he knows what is right, and unlike many people who sit on their asses doing nothing he goes out and does it. Who cares whether he does with Government jurisdiction or not, who's to judge whether Government jurisdiction is right every time? He may not be perfect, but he wants to leave this world better than he found it, and to me that's alright in my book."

The car stopped and Harry got out. "Goodbye Ms Rushman," he stated as he went to the building.

-IM x HP-

Half an hour later Harry sat on a chair, watching two girls kissing in fascination before getting bored and moving somewhere else. He avoided the broken bottles and opened condom packets, sure signs of a party. _This is crazy. Tony, I am so going to get you for this._ He mentally vowed as he turned around to view the signs of chaos. It turned out that the Stark Industries employees had also decided to throw their own party in honour of their boss's birthday, however in a bit of quick-thinking Tony had sent out an email requesting they bring their teenage children too. The children were quickly ushered out onto another floor to throw their own party, but as everyone knows, bringing teenagers together without adult supervision of any sort was bound to bring trouble.

Harry narrowly ducked another thrown bottle in disgust. _So this is what it's like being a teenager, huh? Sounds fun. Much more fun than putting on a heavily armoured robotic exoskeleton and flying around at Mach 8 while trashing tanks and shooting repulsor blasts. _He felt alienated before, now however… this frankly disgusted him. Give him another Voldemort plot to try and kill him any day.

"Hey there, looks like you're bored of the party too."

Harry turned around and his mouth dropped. An absolutely gorgeous girl approached him, dressed in a designer blazer, skirt and long heels, with perfect body, incredible long legs, gleaming luscious brown hair, sparkling blue eyes and a lovely, heart-shaped face. "Er…hey…yeah, I am…too." He stuttered, feeling a lump rise in his throat.

"Good, then you won't mind me sitting here then," she said smoothly, pulling up a chair beside him. "I'm Karen…Karen LaCeux."

_Uh-oh. _He was temporarily shaken out of his daydream. Tony had told him to never under ANY circumstances trust someone with an X in their name, and knowing Tony there would've been a reason for discretion. "Harry… Harry Potter." Now Harry was not a fool under any circumstances, in fact he was now confident of his ability to act cool, logical and collected in ALL situations. So there was no possibility he missed the reflex flick of her eyes to his forehead. _No way. There's no way she could know about that…unless..._

Rapidly he ran through his possibilities. His wand was in its new holster, one he had made himself, but in front of so many muggles he didn't want to use it. There would be no way to contact anyone until he had at least some time to grab his mobile, so he would have to play along for now.

The shouting of a group of teens broke the moment, and she pouted. Oh, how cute she looked. "These idiots are spoiling all the fun; let's go somewhere a little…private."

That sent warning bells into Harry's head, but he couldn't help it; he followed her. She was the most gorgeous girl he had ever seen, well, not as gorgeous as Fleur Delacour, but… there was something so amazing, entrancing, seductive and svelte about her that he couldn't help but follow.

He followed her into an empty corridor, his brain was shouting, but his heart and legs were refusing to follow. She was so beautiful, so amazing, he had felt numb after the Triwizard cup incident, maybe he could really forget…

As soon as Harry rounded the corridor, she jumped him, grabbing him and pulling him closer as she kissed him hard. Vaguely he could smell the scent of strawberries as he fell back into the wall and slid down, all the while kissing her back as his body blazed with fire due to his very first kiss.

She melted back, her breathing heavy and ragged. "I want you now, Harry…" furiously she began undoing his pants as he kissed her again and wrapped his arms around her, forcing himself to focus as he made sure to get a good feel of every part, he traced his hands all over her, until he felt a familiar stick-like shape…

Quickly he whipped it out, sticking it into her side. "I have you," he stated coolly.

Karen looked at him, schooling her look into confusion. "Wh-what? What are you doing Harry?" she began kissing him again and rubbing her body against hers, it took all his willpower not to drop her wand as he pulled his own one out and put it at her neck.

"Shut up, whoever you are," he said, flicking his wand and sending her flying back, feeling relieved at the distant proximity between them. He flicked it again and tied her up in thick ropes.

Karen tried to salvage the situation as she licked her lips. "Ropes, huh… I didn't know you were into that but if you like it…"

"Shut your mouth now or I'll shut it for you!" Harry shouted as he briefly observed her wand before returning his gaze to her. "There's no way you could've gotten into America without notice from the American wizards, so I'm going to assume you're a native. I'm thinking you come from an American pureblood family, or rather a New England wizard family – your make of wand is older and I know that New England pureblood families have a tendency of keeping and passing on wands."

"Correct on all accounts," she purred huskily. "Now why don't you take these ropes off and I can reward you for your quick deductions."

Harry however walked around and pulled down her collar, revealing the back of her neck to be nothing more than perfectly smooth, soft skin before doing the same to both her arms. "No obvious signs of any familial affiliation, you must be a runaway or outcast." Quickly he stunned her as he rubbed his eyes.

This had just complicated everything.


	4. Chapter 4

"SAM, keep her restrained," Harry ordered as he put her wand into the machine. There was an audible click as the piece of wood slotted in, and the machine started flashing blue as it scanned it.

Though his progress on synthesising magic and electronics continued slowly, he had made some progress, one of which was putting magically-imbued objects or artefacts through a machine that would determine their properties. "SAM, did we ever get around to installing the spell-identification software on this terminal?"

"_Affirmative, Harry, it was installed eight days, thirteen hours and twenty minutes ago."_

"Good." Harry called up a holographic readout of all the spells Karen had ever done. They looked fine as he scrolled through them, but as he sorted them out via ratio and frequency of use his expression darkened. There was a noticeable increase in the number of duelling spells, and these were no stunning and ticking jinxes either. Most of them were borderline dark, there was one occasion of an Unforgivable through the Imperius curse though the majority were defensive and distraction spells. "Hmm... SAM, how long will it take to re-fabricate the Mark III?"

"_You have not decided on a colour scheme Harry."_

He quickly ran to his terminal and inputted a colour combination – as the suit was digitally rendered he looked on in approval. That would do fine for a first run. "So how long SAM?"

"_6 hours and twenty four minutes, Harry."_

"Not bad," he commented, Harry knew that he had greatly pushed the time required to fabricate his new suit because of all the additions he needed to make, and even then he knew against a magical assault there was very little chance he could win. "Well, hit it!"

"_Commencing suit fabrication, estimated completion time 6 hours and twenty four minutes."_

As he turned to deal with his girl problem, his computer suddenly started beeping as an incoming message arrived. Harry quickly saw the caller ID was Stark Mansion and opened it up. "Hey Pepper, what can I do for you?" he asked casually.

"Hi Harry, you're surprisingly chirpy for a guy that got forced to go to a teenage party."

"About that... was Tony drunk when he got that idea?"

"He just thought you could use some time with people your own age, that's all," Pepper defended, "although I have to agree his execution could use a little work."

"Tony doesn't do subtlety, at least not very well," Harry agreed. "And Iron Man is the very antithesis of subtle, how's his hangover?"

Pepper laughed. "Quite bad, at the very least he didn't go cavorting in his suit like he did in Morocco!"

Harry laughed with her, remembering Rhodey re-telling that famous incident. "Yeah it was pretty bad; you would've had to get an army to stop him if he did that, or me."

"Oh by the way, the reason why I called is because I know you're most probably holed up in the warehouse that Tony got as your lab, if you pass it could you please go to the building in Sector 24? There's a lot of junk and old relics that were on display in the Stark Expo inauguration but the transporters made a mistake and moved them there instead of our main HQ, you'd save a lot of messy planning if you could grab a few of the boxes."

"That's not a problem," Harry said honestly. "Anyway, if that's all..." he froze as Karen began to murmur.

Pepper frowned, leaning into her screen further. "Wait...Harry; is that a girl in the background?" she questioned excitedly.

"No, it's not!" Harry shouted in embarrassment, fumbling as he tried to shut it off. "Let Tony know when he wakes up I'll need to see him as soon as possible!"

"Oh IT IS! Aw teenage love, hell that party WAS a good idea, I have to tell Tony..."

The screen flickered off as Harry quickly typed in the code to master reset the terminal. He turned around, keeping his wand reassuringly in his pocket. "Hello, Karen."

She yawned, even in the morning she still looked amazing with cutely ruffled hair and heavy droopy eyelids. "Morning, Harry."

It took a serious and conscious effort for Harry to shove his emotions into a box and push them aside in his mind, letting his rational and logical side take over. "I'm afraid this place is sparsely furnished, I have however the basic necessities, I'll let you wash up and then I'll show you out."

Karen blinked. "Oh." Her eyes fluttered in disappointment as she looked down, biting her lip, and despite his cool reasoning Harry couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to Obliviate the location of this place and what it looks like from your memory, you'll remember that you woke up and talked to me but not where." Harry said as he turned around, pulling out a holographic window of an Iron Man torso and already starting to plan designs for several variations.

He could feel her eyes on him as she washed up and used the mirror to clean all the makeup off her face, as she came back Harry was impressed. Her bone structure was extraordinary, perfectly symmetrical and almost mathematically precise, and even without makeup her skin looked absolutely fantastic.

Karen bit her lip again as she tried to talk to him. "So... about last night..."

"We didn't have sex," Harry stated. "So your plan failed."

"P-P-Plan?" Karen stuttered.

"You gave your real name, guess you didn't want to be completely deceptive, make it easier to butter me up, convince me it wasn't such a bad idea. You're Karen LaCeux, a simple DNA sample was enough to confirm that, from a highly wealthy aristocratic pureblood family and daughter of entertainment industry mogul Victor LaCeux. Recently however you've been proclaimed as missing, the facts given out in the muggle world only vaguely alluding to what's really below the surface: something happened, something big that drove a rift of some sort and caused you to run away. You tried to seduce me, in the hopes that bedding the famous Boy-Who-Lived would repair that rift between your family and you." Harry finished.

Karen sighed sadly as her scheme began unrolling away. "I'm sorry, it's true… it's all true. My family isn't dark-aligned, but when it comes to connections, ambitions and family ties... they value those above all else. They tried to marry me to this person... I refused, and my dad blew up because he had been hoping of creating a family alliance that would forward this huge new venture that he had been planning with the other family."

"So who was the lucky guy?" Harry asked.

"His name was Scott, he was...repugnant!" she spat. "Absolutely, absolutely repugnant, disgusting, inconsiderate, arrogant, haughty... ARGH I just get mad thinking about him! The way he'd drool over me like some perverted trophy..."

"And assumedly you hoped to offer your father a better connection, a bigger connection." Harry stated.

Karen looked at him despondently. "You're just as quick as the stories made you out to be..."  
"Oh don't worry, the stories about my 'feats' are greatly exaggerated," Harry said sarcastically. His newfound knowledge had actually fired up several other areas of his brain, he found that his natural knack for deductions and quick reasoning had gone into literal overdrive, allowing him to plan ahead and quickly deduce motives and mysteries.

She frowned as she watched him manipulating the holographic form for several moments before her eyes widened. "So it's true then... you really do work as Tony Stark's technical assistant! That's so amazing!"

"Yes. Now what are you going to do? You can't stay here..." Although he prided himself on quick thinking he had no idea what to do when Karen literally dropped to her feet and grabbed him, hugging him as she begged.

"PLEASE! Even daddy will back off when he realises that Tony Stark and Harry Potter are protecting me! Please, I'm begging you..."

Harry tried pulling her off awkwardly and reaching for his wand, but she had her arms around him so tight he couldn't get a grip without hurting her or touching her inappropriately. Finally after a minute, he sighed, feeling a little sorry for Karen's situation. "You want me to help you?"

Karen nodded emphatically. "I'll do ANYTHING..."

_I don't doubt it._ "Then I want you to pull your own weight, you're a year older correct? I'll get Tony to see if he can't get you an official job as my personal assistant. How qualified are you?"

"I've gotten perfect grades in all the core subjects as well as Arithmancy and Ancient Runes," she stated. "My favourite subject however is always Arithmancy."

Harry nodded, already feeling a plan coming together in his mind. "First I want you to swear an Unbreakable Vow, that you will never willingly betray us, that what you have told us is true, and that everything that happens here remains secret unless I tell you otherwise. Can you do that?"  
Karen smiled eagerly and quickly made the Vow once Harry handed her wand back to her.

"Good. I'll set up a workstation for you, how familiar are you with muggle subjects?"  
"My dad wanted me to be well-versed in both the muggle and magical worlds so he hired tutors for me over the summer for a normal muggle education, and I excel in that as well." Karen said proudly.

"That'll save some time." Harry went away and returned with several diagrams and calculations. "This is what I want to do..."  
As he outlined his ideas, Karen was sufficiently impressed, and as she made several suggestions and gave ideas, Harry knew that he was making the right decision. It seemed that Karen's strength, Arithmancy would be a big help in synthesising magic and electronics, especially since he wanted to make it applicable, not just for general consumption but for...more specialised use. It looked like Karen's presence would cut down on months of undue labour and better allow him to realise his ideas.

Soon enough after several hours of hard work Harry left, Karen in tow to go get some breakfast. In their hard work the concept of food had all but disappeared from their minds and it took SAM having to remind him.

"So why are we stopping here?" Karen asked as Harry input the master code to enter Sector 24.

"Just need to pick up some things for Pepper." He answered as he entered, already noticing the bunch of boxes stacked into the corner.

"Pepper?" she frowned as he pulled off the sheet, also revealing the scale-replica model of the Stark Expo for 1974.

"Oh Merlin," he groaned. "Pepper must be playing a trick on me; this should be back at the Expo! Virginia Potts," he added hastily by way of explanation. He looked at the model which had been leaning against the wall, admiring the craftsmanship and architectural mastery. It looked so precise, the ways the lines intersected, going towards the replica globe, in fact it almost looked like a…

Harry's eyes widened as he put a hand over an eye, trying to assert whether he was seeing things for real.

"What is it Harry?" Karen asked.

Quickly he pulled out his wand and cast a shrinking charm on the model to slip it into his pocket. "I have to make a trip to Stark Mansion, come on; we'll get some food there."

"Wait why?" Karen demanded. "What's so important that it can't wait?"

"We have to get there as soon as possible!" Harry answered tersely as he enlarged his Firebolt and Invisibility Cloak. "Enough to risk a daytime flight, come on!"

"But…"

"No buts Karen, there'll be times when my orders seem odd but you'll have to trust me." Harry swung a leg over the broom as Karen did the same – pulling his Invisibility Cloak over both of them he kicked off, heading for his employer's mansion.

-IM x HP-

"Tony!" Harry threw his Cloak off, setting both magical objects carefully inside Stark Mansion as he made his way into the atrium. "JARVIS, where's Tony?" he scowled, seeing the absolute mess. Rubbish, broken bottles and streamers had been strewn everywhere, with several of the windows broken and cracked, and the piano looking like a crowd of people had fallen in on it.

"_He is currently resting in the master bedroom."_

Harry bounded up the stairway with fervour, not even bothering to knock as he threw open the doors and pulled out his wand, using it to squirt water over his employer. "Come on Tony, wake up!"

The billionaire playboy mumbled something incomprehensible, turning on his side before being hit by the deliberately icy water – he yelped, rubbing his face in a desperate bid to get rid of the water as his eyes snapped open, taking in his technical assistant. "Huh…" he yawned, cocking his head to the side as he observed the girl behind him. "Not bad kid." Then with his opinion given he turned around, wiped his face on the pillow and went back to sleep.

Harry rolled his eyes as Karen chuckled, and it took several more squirts of water for him to force the Stark CEO to prematurely wake, get dressed and wash up to meet them in his basement lab.

"Okay, I'm biting so far, remember it's your bonus for next month on the line," Tony said, rubbing his head once the three of them gathered in his lab.

"Don't worry, I'll make it good... can you stop staring at Tony please?" Harry snapped back to Karen. "And keep your eyes off his suits as well."

"Oh another thing, you're supposed to leave the girl in bed and allow her to let herself out, not wake up with her and let her follow you around like a lost puppy... so what's your name?"

The witch frowned. "Karen."

"Huh, you looked like your name started with a 'K', I guessed Katie but close enough. So this all you wanted to show me?"

Harry gave him a Snape-worthy glare, and quickly enlarged the replica Stark expo, dragging it up on its side. "What does that look like to you Tony?"

"Well... let's see, there are some trees, some Belgian waffle stands..."

"What does it look like when I tell you to focus on that scale globe statue and bring your perspective out then?" Harry pressed, moving back.

Tony frowned, taking a minute as he looked at it. He then narrowed his eyes at the small plaque, proclaiming it was the KEY TO THE FUTURE before looking through it again, feigning an invisible telescope as he looked through it. "...Huh."

"Well?"

"I still don't see it," Karen said with a frown.

"She's a keeper," Tony said with a grin as he grabbed the model, and with Harry's help heaved it onto the holographic table. "JARVIS? Can you Vac-U form a manipulative holographic projection for me?"  
_"As you wish, sir."_

"Harry, there's a bottle of aspirin in the top drawer of the bench," Tony said calmly.

"Karen?" Harry gave her a glance and she went to grab it for them.

Tony gave him an approving look, which Harry ignored.

"_1974 Stark Expo model scans complete sir."_

Tony pulled out the holographic projection, turning it vertical as he contemplated the floor plans before him. "It looks like..."

"An atom," Harry finished. "One we've never seen before."

"In which case, the nucleus would be...here," Tony said, placing his finger over the scale globe. "Highlight that for me would ya JARVIS?" he zoomed in on the sphere, contemplating it in his fingers as he made it the size of a baseball. "Not bad."

"It's cluttered though," Harry pointed out. "JARVIS lose the footpaths..." he quickly pushed them to the side.

"_What exactly are you trying to achieve here sirs?"_

"Rediscovering a new element," Harry stated, as Tony continued to push aside the clutter, tossing aside the landscaping, shrubbery, trees, parking lots, entrances, exits, and everything that was obscuring the view of the holographic atomic blueprint.

Tony looked at it with approval, grabbing the aspirin that Karen gave him before popping the pills in and swallowing them dry. "Would you care to do the honours Harry?"

"Not really, but someone should. JARVIS – structure the protons and neutrons... using the pavilions as a framework," Harry instructed.

The large globe grew bigger as the pavilions began circulating around it faster and faster, until it encompassed the different buildings together, one by one, constructing the model until –

Tony threw his arms out, expanding the atomic structure until it orbited and surrounded the three of them.

Karen gasped. "I don't pretend to be an expert on atoms, but... I don't recognise this particular structure."

"That's because no one's ever seen this before, at least not for twenty years," Harry said in amazement as Tony shrunk it, looking at the tiny molecule with awe.

"Dead for almost twenty years and still taking me to school," he stated. "JARVIS?"

"_From the scans sir the proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for the palladium core. However, it is almost impossible to synthesise."_

"Almost impossible. Almost," Harry pointed out as he grinned, thumbing around in his pocket for some money. "Karen, your first task as my personal assistant is to buy some breakfast, here's some money; take a car if you need it..."  
"What are you two going to do?"

"Funny you should say that..." Harry smirked, and Tony followed it with a matching smirk.

The billionaire playboy clapped his hands together gleefully. "Looks like we're in hardware mode!" However he suddenly frowned. "Wait... she's your personal assistant?"

-IM x HP-

As Tony built a particle accelerator, Harry was seated at the terminal and actively redesigning the concept print for the Mark VI. Karen was sitting by him as he began explaining the different parts of the energy system to the fascinated witch. He pulled out the holographic projection and slotted in the hypothetical element. "Looks like we got you a new suit Tony. JARVIS, how long will it take to fabricate the Mark VI?"

"_With the addition of the modified reactor, four hours and twelve minutes."_

Harry grinned. "Good, then do it!"

"_Diverting partial resources, commencing suit fabrication."_

For the next several minutes the only sounds that could be heard were the scraping and clanking of metal and the hushed tones of Harry and Karen as he explained the concepts of the division of energy resources to her, that is, until Tony broke the moment.

"Hey, Harry?"

"Yeah Tony?"

"I couldn't help but notice that the girl you've just had a one night stand with..."  
"We did not have a one night stand!" The two chorused in perfect unison, before giving each other an odd glance and looking away.

"Yeah, well... I can't help but notice that not only do you want me to have her hired, despite the fact that I have no idea who she really is, but, you are explaining to her extremely classified, top-secret, highly... restricted, Stark secrets."

"Don't worry, she's clean, she took an Unbreakable Vow."

"Unbreakable Vow huh? Good thing they're not breakable," Tony chuckled.

Harry winced as he gave him a monotonous stare. "Yes, Tony, we get it, ha, ha, ha, your jokes are as always comedy gold."

"Man you're never this sarcastic, you really must be diggin' on her," Tony said, and didn't need to look up to know he was blushing red in embarrassment. "So Karen, since we are having more than one meeting, and Harry isn't going to ditch you anytime soon, I guess I should know your last name."

Karen winced. "It's... LaCeux."

"Wait, WHOA!" Tony dropped his wrench in shock, whirling around to look at them as the two teens turned back in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Harry frowned.

"Let me get this straight, the first girl you picked up is not only good-looking, but also happens to be the daughter of Victor LeCeux, head of the LeCeux entertainment empire."

"... Yeah..."

"Who also happens to be Stark Industries' greatest enemy in the entertainment sector, and undoubtedly qualifies for 'jackass of the year' on every single magazine list?"

"I thought that was your position," Harry remarked, "but if you put it that way..."

"So because of the fact you bedded..." he ignored their protests, "this chick, she has betrayed her jackass of a father and come to join Stark Industries?"

"That's ignoring all the magic stuff." Harry noted. "And a whole lot else."

Tony thought about it for a moment before turning to Karen. "Well. In light of that you're hired."

Half an hour later Tony had finished manipulating the electromagnetic coils and the particle accelerator was ready. He handed goggles to Karen and Harry, as the two prepared for their roles in synthesising the new element.

Tony licked his fingers, finishing off his breakfast bagel before putting on a pair of working gloves. "Harry, hit it!"

Harry pulled out his silver key and slotted it in to the machine adjacent to the accelerator. "We're ready JARVIS."

"_Initialising plasmatic accelerator!"_

A warm hum started to fill the room as the coils began glowing a bright, blue – sparks of whirring energy began shooting through them, rapidly gaining speed as Tony held onto the wheel tightly, trying to keep it stable.

"_Approaching maximum power!"_

Quickly Harry handed Tony a wrench, which he accepted gratefully as he used it to twist the wheel. A thin beam of blue energy fired out from the reflective prism placed to focus the plasmatic accelerator, and it burnt an extreme gash in the wall as he swiftly directed it towards his intended target, a small hollow-barred triangle.

A high-pitched whir followed the brilliant flash of blue energy as the energy was focused into the triangle, causing it to take on a blue hue. Tony quickly deactivated the accelerator as he narrowed his eyes, observing the triangle, before gently plucking it out with a pair of tweezers.

"_Congratulations, sir. You have successfully synthesised a new element."_

"Figures JARVIS would give you all the credit," Harry joked as he handed his boss the modified reactor. Gently Tony inserted the triangle into the reactor, and watched as slowly the reactor activated, and took on the similar bright blue hue of energy.

"_The modified reactor has accepted the new core sir."_

"Good, begin running diagnostics," Tony said as he placed the new reactor on a stand by his desk before sitting down and taking a long drink.

Harry turned to his new assistant. "Karen? Do you want to take a car or something and go shopping for some stuff to add to our lab? You know, make it homely? I know girls like that sort of stuff."  
She giggled at his innocence. "Sure I can, it'll take all day though."

Tony frowned. "I thought she was on the run from her dad or something."

"I'll use some glamour charms," Karen answered, "besides I wanted to get out and do some shopping anyway."

Harry handed her a stack of bills which she filed away in her purse, before leaving the mansion.

"You know you could just give her the name of the account I opened up for you, make it a bit easier."

"I don't trust her that much not to do a runner, the account's bit too much of a temptation," Harry stated.

Tony blinked. "Okay, you'd better start from the beginning."

Harry quickly recalled the events from last night till this morning, right up until he made her his assistant.

"Hmm. Looks to me like you're a bit confused," Tony mused. "You don't want her to go do you?"

Harry stayed silent.

"I'll take that as a no. Now I know for a fact that you've probably never had a girlfriend before, or never even noticed how pretty a girl looks up until last year. That's all just a part of growing up. Kid, it could just be the hormones telling you to keep her, maybe it's your 'saving people' thing you always tell me about. But the thing is, you're no ordinary teen and you've faced things that would've made grown, married men with children wet their generic pyjamas, men who think they've seen it all. Past all that…" Tony looked thoughtful. "Heck, kid, I don't even know what I'm trying to say to you."

"Not really," Harry answered bluntly.

"The point is, whatever it is, a phase, hormones, 'saving people' thing… she's good for ya Harry. Let's be honest, you haven't been this intimate with anyone else since you've been here, not even Pepper and that's saying a lot."

Harry stayed quiet, mulling what Tony was saying to him over in his head.

"Just remember, girls are weird, but if you're upfront with them, about seventy five percent of the time you can get away with it. The remaining twenty five percent? Automatically assume it's your fault. It's NEVER the girl's fault. Ever. Period. Even if they dump you."

"Uh, right… so is this... the Talk? The one that Sirius kept telling me he would have with me someday?" Harry asked in confusion.

Tony burst into laughter. "Sirius? Give you the Talk? You can ask Pepper about it if you want, but no one told me about it and I did fine. Don't need it kid, it's animal instinct, genetics, whatever, and you're smart enough to figure out the rest. And if you really must ask someone, please don't ask Sirius. Or Rhodey for that matter." Tony drained the rest of his green concoction. "Man I'm seriously hungry, you hungry Harry?"

"We just ate," Harry deadpanned.

"Get used to it, in America you always eat. How about some donuts?"

-IM x HP-

A/N: Shorter than the other chapters, but it'll kick off soon hopefully. What colours do you think Harry's Iron Man suit should be? I've got some ideas for his first suit but I want to know what you think.


	5. Chapter 5

"Some more donuts, Tony?"

"Yeah, can you get me a box of the ones that have a dollop of raspberry jam in them?"

The two of them were sitting on the roof – Harry dangling his legs off the edge, and Tony had actually seated himself, without any help, in the giant metal donut of the food store. It had been quite a climb but with a little help from magic they had managed it.

"So how's the customisation of the Mark III coming along Harry?" Tony bit into the final donut in the paper box, tossing it away as Harry handed him another set.

"SAM's fabricating it as we speak, I've added..." Harry frowned as the mirror in his pocket started buzzing before he grinned and pulled it out. "Hey Sirius!" He flicked his wand subtly to put a privacy ward around them. "Tony, say hi to Sirius."  
Tony finished off his donut and looked down as Harry raised the mirror. "Oh, hey douche bag."

"Closet gay," Sirius greeted curtly. "Hope you're taking care of my godson."

"Funny you should say that, I struggle to take care of myself sometimes..."

"Right." Sirius rolled his eyes as Harry brought the mirror back down to eye level. "Harry, Dumbledore knows you're missing."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Really? Now of all times?"

"Yeah, get this: apparently Dementors were found loitering around your neighbourhood."

The wizard bolted upright. "For real? How?"

"The Ministry's trying to look confused at how two Dementors managed to drift all the way from Azkaban into Little Whinging, but Dumbledore and I don't think it's coincidence."

"... They were after me then."

"Spot on. You don't understand the debacle the Ministry's in, Harry, to suggest a long-dead dark lord has returned seems preposterous to Fudge, and he has very _avid_ supporters, some of whom might want the only people who know of his return silenced. Dumbledore's concerned now, but I've convinced him I'm keeping you in a safe place though Mrs Weasley will probably kill me when she finds out."

"That doesn't make sense though," Harry pointed out. "Voldemort was clear last time we met, he wanted to finish me off himself, and so I highly doubt he would delegate the task to a couple of Dementors through a scapegoat like Malfoy."

"Perhaps not Harry, but that should tell you to be even more careful. Some people don't want their perfect little worlds disturbed by something as Earth-shattering as Voldemort's return – for some with enough political clout like Fudge, they would do desperate things to maintain that."

"God, Sirius, you sound like an old kung fu or Jedi master." Tony assumed a wizened voice and ludicrous old man pose. "Hard to see, the dark side is! Be wary of the dark lord!"

His godfather and Harry burst into laughter.

"I had forgotten how much lighter you could make a situation, I'm glad I pulled the favour," Sirius chuckled.

"Yeah, so after this we're even?" Tony demanded with a pointed finger.

Sirius winked as his face disappeared. "We're even. I'll talk to you later Harry."

Harry stuffed the mirror back into his pocket, taking his feet off the edge and laying them on Tony's case.

"I can't believe you brought that, what you think we're gonna get attacked in a donut shop?" Tony asked incredulously – before he promptly turned around and groaned. "Well actually..."

Harry frowned as a man dressed in a dark leather trench coat, with an eye patch over his eye appeared, raising his hand to signal to them.

"Sir! I'm going to have to ask you to exit the donut" The man shouted, waving them down.

"Keep my case handy," Tony instructed as he rolled his eyes and hoisted himself down.

-IM x HP-

"I told you before Nicky, I don't want to join your super secret boy band," Tony stated as he drank a cup of coffee.

"No, no, see I remember, you like to do everything yourself, how's that working out for you?"

"Pretty good actually, so you can..." Tony frowned. "I'm sorry, I don't want to get off on the wrong foot, but do I look at the patch or the eye?"

Harry stood by his boss quietly, watching Fury who only looked slightly amused, before turning his gaze up. "So the infamous new assistant, Harry Potter."

"A pleasure," Harry stated coolly.

"What are you playing at Tony?" Fury asked

"What do you mean what am I playing at? Playing at what?"

"You see I know that this kid hasn't even finished school, probably never even went to school from what our records look like! Yet here you are, allowing him to play with all your cool toys while you keep its use restricted completely from the US Government! Is there a story behind this?"  
"You're the super-secret spy, you tell us," Harry answered smugly, and Tony gave him an approving look.

Fury however glared at him silently, until someone very familiar approached.

"We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for much longer," the woman said.

Tony looked at her through his sunglasses. "Huh. You're fired."

"That's not up to you." She replied.

"Tony, Harry, I'd like to introduce you to Agent Romanoff," Fury announced.

"I'm a SHIELD shadow," Romanoff explained, "once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."

Harry frowned. "I'm not surprised; there was something fishy about you."

"Not bad kid," Fury said in approval. "You're more of a mystery than I thought." He turned to Tony. "Making your girl the CEO of your company – that's kind of surprising. Now if I didn't know any better..."

"You don't." Harry interrupted. "One example does not equal a trend."

Fury sneered. "Hit him."

HISS! As soon as Agent Romanoff had stuck a syringe into Tony's neck, Harry had activated the case for the Mark V and suited up, the red and silver plates forming over him and completely covering his body as he raised a hand, powering up his repulsor – Romanoff responded in kind by aiming a pistol at him. Fat load of good that would do.

"OH GOD! What, are you going to steal my kidney and sell it?" Tony groaned, shaking his head as his eyes came back into focus. "Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds?" To Harry, he commented, "Not bad, you managed to increase assembly speed."

"What the bloody hell did you do to him?" Harry snarled.

"What did we just do for him," Nick Fury corrected. "That's lithium dioxide, it's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work."

"Tony is perfectly healthy," Harry stated levelly, voice filtered and mechanical through the helmet. "Any sicknesses he might have are not your concern, they're ours. Tony does not work for SHIELD therefore you have no power over him, and quite frankly I'm disgusted with you people."

"YOU'RE disgusted? Now why the hell should I care?" Fury asked. "Your employer's become a problem, one I have to deal with! Contrary to your belief he is not the centre of my universe! I have bigger problems to deal with!"

"This is why I hate dealing with bureaucrats," Tony groaned, and frankly Harry agreed.

"It's simple really. From what I can gather, you knew, for a while, that Tony was ill! You knew, and you waited until we had no option but to turn to you guys." Harry explained. "You even planted a spy to keep dibs on us. For the Director of some sort of super-secret agency, you really are incompetent. If you've got bigger problems, the logical step would be to deal with this as soon as possible to move on to those. Your superiors, if the US Government has been clever enough to give you any, should fire you for gross negligence and incompetence."

Tony burst into laughter. "Ooh, he's got you there Nicky."

Fury sneered yet again, though Harry could tell Romanoff was trying not crack to smile. "Uh-huh, and if I'm incompetent then I really don't need to tell you that Vanko's alive."

"Wait, he's what?" Harry demanded.

"Oh sorry, but you guys must already know about that," Fury said sarcastically. "Come on, let's go."

-IM x HP-

"If Vanko's alive someone with big resources clearly pulled him out," Harry deduced. "Enough to maybe even finance their own Iron Man army."

Stark frowned. "Reckon that Nicky's just playing us?"

"Maybe, but he still is a spy. This sort of thing is right up his alley." The two of them glanced up to see Rhodey making his way into the basement lab.

"I got your message, I came as soon as I could," he said. "What's up?"

After being briefed on the situation Rhodes' face was understandably grim. "Tony, that's not good, imagine the damage a guy like Vanko could do! And with his knowledge..."

"We known, Rhodey, that's what we're trying to figure out now," Tony interrupted. "Harry, got any ideas?"

Harry shook his head. "I hate to say it Tony, but... you DO have a lot of people who dislike you."

"Doesn't hurt to be nice once in a while," Rhodey added.

"Hey, I'm nice!" Tony protested. "What about you Harry, you're pretty vicious to some people, people who deserve it, same thing! Come on, what, you expect me to play ball with every ass that I have to deal with? I mean, think about all the people I have to deal with on a daily basis, those Republican senators, the press, the public, the generals, even Hammer occasionally!"

"That's it!" Harry shouted, bolting out of his seat. "Who else would it be? It must be Justin Hammer! He was there at Monaco, he had been trying to build his own Iron Man suits and he has more than enough resources to pull someone like Vanko out of prison and fake his death."

Both Rhodes and Tony agreed. "It's a perfect fit, but that doesn't bode well," the playboy said, glancing towards the new reactor on its stand. "Hammer has a tendency of mass-producing a stack of high-tech, high-cost toys that don't work right, what's to say he hasn't done the same for his Iron Man rip offs?"

Rhodey looked thoughtful. "And if Vanko could get them working... we'd be talking about an army of Iron Man suits?"

"Yeah, I'd say he's mass-produced at the very minimum a dozen," Tony stated confidently.

"Tony, if that's the case, that could be more than even Iron Man could handle," Harry said worriedly. "What happens if they each have the same capabilities as your suit?"

"I doubt it, Vanko may be more advanced than everyone else but no way could he play me at my own game. You saw his variation of it at Monaco – effective, but sloppy. Inefficient."

"Tony... would Hammer want to kill you?" Rhodey asked.

"Hammer? The worst he'd want to do is ruin my reputation, but Vanko? Yeah he'd want to kill me. Kind of a clash of intentions there, but considering how idiotic Justin Hammer is I don't think he knows that."

"Then no way am I letting you fight them off yourself," Harry said boldly, standing next to his boss.

Tony looked across at him, slightly proud despite himself. "Sorry kid, but Iron Man doesn't have a sidekick or partner."

"That doesn't mean you have to fight alone," Harry replied. He glanced to the suits in storage. "Is the Mark II combat-ready?"

Tony's eyes widened. "Oh, no, no, no, Harry, you cannot do this to me... surely you're not thinking...?"

"Hell yes I am, when I'm gone who's gonna be minding you? What happens if you get drunk and go on a rampage in your suit? And don't tell me there's no chance of it happening!" Harry admonished with a glare. "You know as well as I do he's more than perfect enough for the job."

"What?" Rhodey frowned. "Who are you talking about?"

"You," Harry stated as he moved to the storage facility and opened up the case for the Mark II. "Someone's got to keep Tony in check."

Rhodes turned to Tony, dumbfounded as the playboy gave him a similarly confused face, before one of resignation. "You're going to force Pepper to tell me off if I refuse don't I? ...Fine."

"Oh HELL YEAH!" Rhodey shouted uncharacteristically, pumping his fist in the air. "You serious? I'm about to get my own suit?"

"Heh, you wanna be the War Machine?" Tony gave Harry a glance to which he nodded.

"Don't worry; I'll trick it out for him." The wizard went back to the terminal, pulling up the holographic design of the Mark II as he began adding improvements.

-IM x HP-

"… Bloody hell." Harry had just returned to his warehouse lab after a hard day's work in which Tony had also tried out the new reactor and found its energy outputs to be off the scale. "Karen?" he yelled, as he surveyed the major changes she had made.

Though she had thankfully spared his main lab and work areas that could not have been said for his formerly humble sleeping and washing quarters. Harry wasn't by any stretch concerned with excessive luxury, especially when he was working, but… really?

His bed sheets had been completely changed, heck his whole bed had been changed for one large enough for two people. It was now silken and purple, a bad combination by any stretch, but layered with plush love heart pillows and teddy bears was just rubbing it in. And pink curtains? Seriously?

The witch appeared, having just finished charming scented lavender candles. "So what do you think?" she asked excitedly.

Harry subconsciously noted she looked fantastic in a casual t-shirt and shorts, and fought to hide a blush. "Err… it looks great, Karen, but… isn't that where I usually sleep?"

She smiled, tossing her hair slightly. "I know."

"Then… what about you?"

Karen began playing with a strand of her hair as she ducked her head – why the hell did girls always do that? Harry frowned as he looked at the bed again, then at Karen, then back at the bed. Didn't he ask her to get things for her own sleeping quarters? Was she taking his bed? Wait, why was the bed so large? That was easy, because it was for more than one person but that meant…

Harry blushed bright red as he realised what she wanted, and she smiled nervously when she knew he got it. "Oh, well, Karen, that's… flattering… and all, but…?" a knot formed in his throat as his mind blanked. Would it be so bad? He could almost imagine her warm arms encircling him as he woke up –

Harry suddenly spotted his old pillow, sheets and mattress, and quickly summoned them. He put them down and started to set them up. "It's okay, I can sleep here. You can take my old spot." Mentally he congratulated himself on a good save.

"Oh… okay." Karen said sadly, turning away. "Well, thanks Harry."

"You're welcome," Harry replied on habit as he sat at his desk and flicked on his computer. Instantly thousands of blue digits began pouring down the screen as Harry typed away furiously. Hovering beside him was a window with snippets of hundreds of video clips playing, all showing Harry casting different spells as energy readouts flashed above them.

Karen looked at him curiously, her fascination overriding her disappointment as she approached. "What are you doing?"

"Ironing the bugs out in my new software," Harry stated. "It's similar to the operating system the Iron Man suits have, but I've configured this one to recognise spells based on wavelength signature."

"Whoa," Karen breathed as she moved in for a closer look. "Wait; are those the Arithmancy equations I went through with you?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. I've added them to the software; I'm building up a catalogue of them. All spells and rituals can be broken down into Arithmancy equations, right? I want my final software to not only be able to recognise spells, but recognise the inherent effects of unknown spells based on wavelength and therefore Arithmancy equations. That means, with a little luck, in conjunction with SAM…"

"Using the software and A.I., you could literally create spells and rituals on the fly, modify existing rituals for instant use, and boost the power of spells…" Karen laughed. "You're mad Harry! Completely mad, but a genius! Does that mean you've managed to fuse electronics and magic together?"

"The theory is sound, however the actual execution is a little sloppy. I need a little more, the first muggle appliances that used magic shorted out because their circuits just weren't made for handling magic." Harry sighed.

"How long have you done this for?" Karen asked, shaking her head in astonishment.

"A little while, now I've been trying to expand on the original theory and incorporate it into the actual Iron Man technology. Run before you walk and all that. But I need a bit more." He typed in a command as a holographic readout of an Arc Reactor appeared. Harry made an expanding gesture as the Reactor began unscrewing itself into its base parts. "It's impossible to make an Arc Reactor that can transfer energy to magic. I need something that focuses the energy from the Arc Technology _into_ magic – possibly an inherently magical artefact or object." Harry frowned. "I've looked through every book I can, read through every tome, but nothing. A Philosopher's Stone perhaps, but those take years to make even with Mastery in Alchemy. Other than that, I've been coming up short. I know there's something missing!"

"It's okay, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon," Karen soothed as she leaned in behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Now why don't you explain what you're doing to the circuits to make them run magic and show me those Arithmancy equations again so I can make some corrections?"

-IM x HP-

**One day, several hours later**

"So, we ready to get this show on the road?" Tony was fully kitted out in his new red and gold Iron Man armour, a glowing triangular piece on his chest plate proudly displaying his new Reactor.

"Damn straight we are." The Mark II was a far-cry from the original silver prototype, now with a new black and silver military finish, Harry had doubled the amount of armour plating on it and more than quadrupled its firepower. It carried the arsenal of a small army and Rhodey was adamant everyone know it – every inch of plating was bristling with a different state-of-the-art armament, topped off by the massive 7.62mm mini-gun mounted on his back. "Where's Harry?"

"He's 'finishing up', or so he says, don't worry, he'll be here for the party. Ready to bust Hammer's gig?"

"You know it."

"Let's get moving then!"

Two fast moving blurs shot through the night air, three times as fast as a missile, flying together in perfect tandem as they headed for the Stark Expo.

"Not bad for a first-time flyer," Tony commented as the twinkling lights of the Expo greeted them.

"You forget I'm Air Force Tony, plus I've seen you do this plenty of times."

"You should've seen Harry at it, the kid's a natural in the air. First time he was in the suit, BANG! Accelerated straight to Mach 5, perfect barrel roll, loops around then comes flying back asking if he could keep him." The playboy chuckled as they reached the stadium. "Stay out here, you see even a hint of Vanko you tell me, I'm gonna confront Hammer."

"Whoa, whoa, what, you mean you're going to interrupt Hammer's presentation, in front of ALL his Iron Man suits?"

"Actually, from my scans they look like drones. See ya later!"

_Man, the new Reactor is seriously boosting my suit, and I feel better than ever._ Iron Man burst into the stadium, flying through the air as he landed on stage with a loud clang, almost imagining Pepper's eyes roll as he observed the drones, ignoring the thunderous applause for his entrance. _As I thought, way too advanced for Hammer_. Iron Man turned around. "Where's Vanko?" he demanded, armour-clad figure towering over the smaller businessman.

"Hey, dude, this is my gig!" Justin protested, adjusting his glasses.

"You know what I'm talking about, where's Ivan Vanko?" Tony repeated.

The slight gulp of nervousness did not go unnoticed. "What are you doing here, man?"

Before Tony could answer his audio sensors registered the sudden clank of motion. He whirled around, looking at the drone army as they raised their weapons. "Uh-oh. Let's take this outside!"

Iron Man had hardly fired his repulsors before the drones began to open fire. He spiralled through the air, evading the shots before boosting out of the stadium. "Rhodey, deal with the ones on the ground, I'll try to move them away from the Expo!"

"Gotcha Tony!" Rhodey surged through the air, activating his missile pods as he locked onto several of the drones. "Eat this!" Several smart missiles erupted from the missile pods, streaking towards their targets before bursting through the drones, causing them to burst into explosions. Rhodey watched as another group of drones began lumbering after Tony in pursuit – he fired up his machine guns and mini-gun, the armour-piercing bullets tearing through them as he zoomed in, streaking through the sky and destroying them one after the other.

Tony's eyes widened in horror as he saw several drones firing randomly, their shots littering the area with debris as they indiscriminately destroyed the premises. He corkscrewed, whirling around in an effort to shake off the ones on his tail before lowering altitude, using his velocity to slam into one with maximum force before kicking another one, tearing out its Reactor. He fired up his repulsors and used them to destroy the final two, before narrowly escaping, the drones still hot in pursuit. "Hey, Rhodey I could use a hand here!"

"Not a problem Tony where are you?"

"I'm sending you my - AHHH!"

Iron Man barely had time to move out of the way before something hard slammed into him, tackling him as they shot through the air, breaking through several panes of concrete before landing into a large park-like area, rolling to a stop in a stream.  
Tony hoisted himself up. "Ouch." He scowled as his helmet popped open, and turned to pull his friend up. "Next time please give me more indication before you plan to bowl into me."

"Trust me, it wasn't exactly on my list," Rhodey answered, shaking it off as his helmet opened up as well. "So what's next?"

"The drones have probably got a lock on our repulsor signatures and are heading this way, this is a good place to draw them in, I think. So what's the game plan?"

Rhodey pointed towards the cliff. "We need to take the high ground, let's go and put the biggest gun we have up on there."

"Okay sure, where'll you be?" Tony turned and in surprise saw that Rhodey was moving as well, before groaning. "Look, Rhodey, you have a big gun, you are not THE big gun!"

"Tony, don't be jealous, Harry made sure he packed me out!"

"Yeah I can see all the bells and whistles, surprised he did that in fact."

"It's called being a badass, even Harry understands it!"

"Being a badass does not mean showing off all your bells and whistles, look at my armour, it's a little something called tact…"

"I'm sorry but considering we're both in high-tech suits of fortified plated armour we can't exactly talk about tact!"

"Even so…"

BOOM!

Tony and Rhodey turned from their mini-argument, looking around in surprise as the drones began to land, one by one, looking at the two impassively through their glowing receptors.

_It's show time_. They shared a glance before their helmets slammed into place and they sprang into action.

Dodge, dodge, punch, kick, shoot, the two barely had time to pause for breath, barely had time to think as they moved, attacking, defending, attacking, syncopating themselves with the drones' rhythm, using their superior mobility, armours and speed to their advantage. They were vastly outnumbered, true, but it was a classic case of quality vs. quantity as one by one, the drones fell.

"Rhodey, get down!" Tony shouted as his gauntlets started glowing red – Rhodey had just enough time to duck before twin lasers fired out, cutting through everything in their path.

"Not bad," Rhodey said once he stood up, surveying the damage. The lasers had cut through virtually everything in their path – trees, metal torsos, arms, legs had all been cleanly cut and sliced off. "But I think you should lead with that next time."

"Yeah sorry, boss, I can only use it once," Tony replied, as he ejected the twin pieces of smoking metal. "It's a one-off." He frowned as a transmission came on his screen – he opened it, to reveal a window of Agent Romanoff.

"Tony, it's Agent Romanoff. I've secured the room Vanko was working from but he's escaped."

"Looks like you guys are useful after all," Tony said jokingly, but the SHIELD operative was as cold-faced as ever.

"Good job on the new Reactor, but I have another drone on screen."

"Another drone?" Tony and Rhodey shared a look.

"This one's different," she stated. "Repulsor signature is significantly higher."

_I think we all know what that means…_ Tony braced himself.

A massive, dark armour-clad figure landed in the clearing. The faceplate retracted, to reveal who they feared: Vanko.

The Russian gave them a smirk. "Good to be back," he drawled in his thick accent.

"Uh-oh, this ain't gonna be good," Rhodey breathed.

Before Vanko could move however he snapped his head up in shock. The two followed him, and watched as yet another armour-clad figure appeared, afterburners blazing a trail in the night sky as it flew hot towards them.

Tony gave a whoop. "Looks like the cavalry's arrived!"

The armoured warrior hovered down, looking fearsome in his sleek Iron Man suit as he landed on Tony's other side. His armour plating had been buffed up, yet overall remained smooth and perfectly aerodynamic. Like Tony's, aside from the glowing palms there was no indication of any weapons – however the attachment of pods, both on the shoulders and on the gauntlets, suggested otherwise. The new edition of the Mark III came kitted out in a blazing, futuristic blue and silver, as glowing green receptors regarded his foe.

Harry had come for the party.

"Sorry I'm late, did I miss anything?" His voice had been augmented through the suit, now sounding deeper and distinctly more masculine, though in a mechanical, robotic way.

"Nothing too important, but you came for the icing on the cake."

Harry regarded the chaos and the now-defeated drones around them as his faceplate opened up, vivid green eyes staring down his opponent. "I'm truly sorry for what happened between your father and Howard Stark, Vanko. But you chose to let your father's legacy defeat you. You chose to let it dominate your life and crush you into petty revenge when you could have used it for better purposes. You're willing to resort to murder to get your revenge, and I have no qualms about stopping you."

Vanko sneered. "Try." With a flick, twin cables shot out of his arms, followed by thunderous blue electricity, easily three times as powerful as the ones he used in Monaco.

Harry scowled as his faceplate retracted into place, showing only Iron Man's emotionless visage. "You think your trick can work a second time?" He raised his arms as two blades came shooting out of his gauntlets, crackling with white arcs of lightning.

"Heck, why didn't he do that for me?" Rhodey muttered.

And then the three sprang into action.

Tony jumped through the air, trying to use his speed to his advantage but Vanko cracked his whips, using one of them to slice through Iron Man's torso, and using the other to keep the two away as Rhodey fired his guns. Harry activated his shoulder pods as twin missiles shot towards their opponent, streaking through the air – Vanko managed to slash one away but the other detonated early, cracking his suit as he stumbled back.

"HAAA!" Tony used the distraction to get in close, tackling him to the ground before firing a repulsor point-blank into his chest – Vanko grunted but threw his whip out, catching Iron Man in the arm this time and ensnaring him. He quickly used the other whip to slash off the barrels of Rhodey's mini-gun but yelped as Harry hacked through the whip that had caught Tony, before getting him with a shallow cut.

Now with only one whip Vanko became murderous. He gave a bloodthirsty roar as he smashed Harry away, snapping one of his blades with a fist, before lashing out at Rhodey, catching him by the neck and flinging him away.

Harry used his foot repulsors to make a jump, kicking Vanko in the face as he knocked him to the ground. He didn't let up however – hoisting Vanko above him, he kicked off, shooting straight up through the air, up high enough before throwing the Russian down with all his might.

Vanko whistled through the air, hitting the ground with seriously concussive force as he groaned, pulling himself up.

"Good shot kid!" Tony raised both his repulsors. "Rhodey, double team?"

"Gotcha!"

The two of them fired their repulsors, hitting Vanko simultaneously on both sides, denting his armour even further. The Russian stumbled back under the relentless assault as Rhodey and Tony continued to fire, shooting beams one after the other, never giving him enough room to manoeuvre.

Vanko growled in fury as he rounded on Harry, throwing his whip at him.

Harry however grabbed it in his gauntlet, gripping it tightly as his screens began to short out. He grit his teeth however and continued to take it. "Vanko, a word of advice – never rely on just one weapon!" Harry raised his other arm as several pods popped out, and hit him with a succession of missiles.

With his whip tethered to Harry, the Russian was helpless. Rhodey, Tony and Harry continued to pelt him with as much fire as they could, before finally the wizard used his remaining blade to slash off the whip, rendering him helpless.

Vanko staggered back, watching in horror at the three approaching Iron Men, metallic faces impassive and uncaring. Finally however he sneered. "You lose."

His Arc Reactor started blinking red, followed by each of the drones. The trio whirled around in shock, their scanners all reading the same thing.

"Oh hell, we have to get out of here; these things are rigged to blow!"

Tony's eyes widened. "PEPPER!"

Three figures shot through the air, Tony separating from the two as he raced desperately against time. _Damn it, Pepper where are you... THERE!_

Iron Man quickly deployed his flaps, slowing himself down to grab Pepper just in the nick of time – a second later the drone exploded, taking out a massive chunk of the stadium with it.

Tony landed on a nearby rooftop, letting her go as he pulled off his helmet. "Pepper! Pepper, you okay?"

"Oh God, no! No, I am not okay! I can't take it anymore, worrying after you, Harry, magic, being CEO, NO! That's it, that's enough, I QUIT!" She screamed.

Tony blinked. "You quit?"

"I… yes. I am quitting." Pepper said, breathing heavily from the adrenalin.

"That's surprising… actually, not that surprising." Tony sighed. "You, you don't have to make any excuses…"  
"I'm not making any excuses…"

"Uh, yeah, you're making an excuse…"

"I'm not making any excuses; I'm actually very justified…"

"Hey, hey, hey," Tony soothed, taking her hand. "I understand, you don't need to justify yourself. You deserve better, you've taken such good care of me…"

Pepper sniffed. "Thank you, thank you for understanding…"

"It's okay. Now let's talk logistics, who's gonna handle the clean up?"

"I can do that, I'll handle the transition, you need to talk to the President…" Unconsciously they had been drawing nearer, and it was Tony who moved forward, drawing her into a long kiss.

The moment seemed to last forever before the two reluctantly broke apart.

Tony frowned. "Weird?"

"No, it's not weird…" Pepper breathed.

"I thought it was weird!"

Tony and Pepper turned around in shock to see Rhodey, with his helmet off, watching them.

"Well, actually, it's not weird, since she had just quit and…"

"You don't have to tell me, I watched the whole thing, but you guys still look like two seals, fighting over a grape."

"You should get lost," Tony stated.

"I was here first! Get a roof!"

The two actually chuckled at that. "I thought you were all out of one-liners?" Tony asked.

"Well, that was the last one." Rhodey turned off into the distance. "Where's Harry?"

Unbeknownst to them, several miles away, standing unnoticed amidst the gargoyles of a gothic skyscraper, Harry looked out at the night sky, inhaling in the cold air, helmet gripped in his gauntlets.

He looked at his reflection in a window, face darkening as he noticed his lightning bolt scar. "I'm coming for you Voldemort," Harry growled. "And this time it's on my terms."


	6. Chapter 6

Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' pumped out of the hot red and gold sports car on maximum volume as it pulled up to McDonald's for drive-thru lunch.

The girl at the window admired the vehicle as it pulled up. "Hey there, welcome to McDonald's, would you like to place an order?" She watched as the boy behind the wheel turned down the music and leaned towards the window.

"Hi, I'll grab a Big Mac, cheeseburger, egg salad, French fries and... let's see, I think I'll just stick with a coke for today."

She fought hard not to stare at him as he handed her the money – he was extremely cute after all, and loaded with cash if the car and designer Ray-Bans had anything to suggest, not to mention that flashy looking watch...

The boy dipped his head, revealing the most startlingly emerald eyes she had ever seen, giving her a grin as she handed over his meal. "Thanks."

"Y-You're welcome..."

"Here's a little something for your trouble." The girl gaped in astonishment as he casually passed over a hundred dollar bill, before flooring the accelerator – the turbo-charged engine gave a roar before the sports car went screeching out, speeding down the highway.

She sighed wistfully. _What a catch..._

Dressed in a light tan shirt with blue jeans, Harry smiled as he rolled down the window, letting the wind bluster through his hair, tangling it further. The smell of sea salt was distinct and something that he enjoyed. This place beat a drab old Scottish castle any day.

As he enjoyed the sea the console on his dashboard began beeping – Harry hit a button as a screen slid out, humming to life with Tony in view.

"Hey kid!" he frowned. "I didn't know you went for your license."

"That's because I didn't," Harry answered breezily. "So what's up?"

"Don't tell Pepper – anyway, where you going now? You got time for anything?"

"I was just planning to head back and eat some lunch with Karen, after which we would continue our research."

"Okay, once you've finished lunch head back to the mansion. I've got a surprise for you. Not that kind of surprise," Tony chuckled, seeing Harry's suspicious look.

"Should I bring Karen?"

"If you want." With that the screen blacked out as Tony ended the call.

A surprise, huh? Harry braked sharply, smoothly heading for the nearest exit even as he cut across several cars' paths to do so. Well, it would do no good to keep them waiting would it?

He parked his car in the compound, coming down to the warehouse with food in hand. "Karen! Hey, Karen!" His eyes widened as a spell went whizzing towards him – he ducked, dropping the food and snapping out his wand. _"Reducto, Reducto, Stupefy, Expelliarmus!" _Four powerful spells went zinging towards the direction of the curse at high speed, and Harry watched and waited, wand at the ready.

A second later, there was a loud clang, and a thud. Harry walked towards the origin of the sound, and as he expected, it was a training robot. "Not bad, that one nearly caught me by surprise."

"_Footage has been recorded and added to the database and your performance has been timed Harry, 1.97 seconds. A new record."_

"Don't you ever get tired of winning Harry?" Karen sighed as she emerged from her quarters, taking off her earphones and mp3 player.

"It was your idea in the first place I remember, after the umpteenth time I beat you."

"And you don't need to gloat either," she muttered, biting her lip in annoyance. "I swear you progressed so fast!"

"Maybe you just got slack," Harry playfully retorted as he summoned the food into his hand. "Come on, let's have lunch."

Karen had the salad and coke while Harry had the others with a glass of water, they ate for several minutes in silence with only occasional chitchat.

"Will you please stop that?" Karen growled, pointing a French fry towards his wand. Harry was fanatically devoted to practical spells, and whenever he wasn't researching or building something, he almost always had wand in hand, such as now, where he was eating with one hand and with the other unconsciously repeating wand movements. "It's starting to drive me nuts!"

"It helps my wrist develop speed..."

She rubbed her temples. "Really, you do like rubbing it in don't you?"

Harry gave her a toothy smirk. "Hell yes I do. Weren't you the duelling champion at Salem Academy?"

"...Yes..."

"Ahead of me academically?"

"...Yeah."

"Older and therefore wiser with more developed magic?"

"I won't hesitate to hex you while you're asleep!"

Harry wisely stopped, but he kept his wand out, practicing spell movements until they finished eating.

"So you want to continue reworking the software now Harry?" Karen asked, deftly cleaning her mouth with the napkin before tossing it in the bin.

"Change of plan Karen, I'm going to Tony's. Want to come along?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Are you serious?"  
Harry laughed. The playboy billionaire had teased them at every turn, shifting every innocent little question into a vulgar innuendo, constantly making lewd suggestions. The wizard was used to worse behaviour and got him back by making suggestions about Pepper. Karen however was left red-faced and embarrassed every time. "Fine, well in that case do you mind putting the algorithms on paper?"  
"I can do that. Have fun Harry!"

He had no doubt that he would.

-IM x HP-

"Hey JARVIS," Harry greeted, walking through the atrium. "Where's Tony?"

"_Welcome back, sir. He is in the basement; I have informed him of your arrival."_

"Thanks." He made his way downstairs. "Tony what's this all... Sirius!"

Indeed, it was his godfather, dressed in a suit, he looked healthier than ever with his shaggy hair cut and his unruly beard shaved off. "Hey pup, I hope Tony hasn't been ribbing you too hard!" He chuckled as Harry hugged him.

"I'll have you know that he's been having the time of his life here," Tony stated very seriously. "Ain't that right?"

"He's right, it's been amazing here," Harry said, beaming. "How did you get here? Why aren't any American Aurors out to get you?"

"Who says they aren't?" Sirius replied cheekily.

"He's joking; Rhodey owes me a few favours, managed to get him to slip your godfather aboard a military-sanctioned charter plane." Tony explained. "The Ministry here aren't allowed to slip their nose into military affairs, it just complicates things."

"Yeah, I remember that... so why are you here Sirius? Not that I'm not glad to see you, it's just..."

"Unexpected? Well, being cooped up in a house all day isn't exactly the most pleasant experience, let me tell you," the Marauder said, scratching his neck. "I just needed to get out of that hole that people call Magical Britain."

"Is it really that bad?"

"Harry, I need to know in person – have you had any... dreams lately?" Sirius demanded with sudden urgency.

He shook his head. "Nothing more than a few glimpses and flashes, they rarely last the whole night, and that's before I was wearing this." Harry turned around and pulled his shirt down, revealing a strange, plastic-looking band stuck to the back of his neck.

"Huh, so that's where my microchips went," Tony commented, but Sirius looked at it in confusion.  
"What's that?"

Harry pulled his shirt back up, covering it. "It's what I call a neural isolator. It broadcasts a short-wave frequency that go no farther than around my head, which I've found can counter the broadcasted signals from a brain's electrical impulses – in other words, psychic or mental intrusions. I've got a more powerful one in my suit, but this one is fine to block out even strong mental probing."

Sirius looked at it, incredibly impressed. "Not bad pup, you rigged it up yourself?"

"Yeah, let's just say I've learnt a few things since coming here. So can you tell me what's going on? Why did you need to talk to me in person all of a sudden?"

Sirius glanced over at Tony before lowering his tone slightly. "We believe that Voldemort's after something... something he didn't have in the first war..."

"That could be a lot of things," Harry mused. "A weapon? Knowledge? An artefact?"

Sirius shifted uneasily. "It's... complicated. I wish I could tell you more, I really do, but I can't say anything else about it except that it's in the Department of Mysteries."

The gears in Harry's mind clicked. "Is it a prophecy?"

Sirius gaped at him. "How did you figure that out?"

Harry shrugged. "Logic, plus there's not much else he would want. I also assumed it's related to me somehow since you were so reluctant to say anything about it. So it's a prophecy between Voldemort and me then."

"Basically, it's the reason he went after you."

"And he wants it. Huh, no surprises there."  
"Aren't you shocked? Or alarmed, at all?"

"A little bit, but it does explain a few things," Harry admitted.

Tony decided to pipe in. "I'm not one for much of this hocus pocus stuff, but a prophecy sounds a bit shady to me."

"Yeah, I like to think we make our own fates," the young wizard stated. "Besides, prophecies are usually vague and unassuming at best, I don't think it'd benefit me that much to know. We all know I'm going to kick Voldemort's skinny snake ass, don't need a prophecy to tell me that."

Sirius looked at him admiringly. "You've changed a lot over the summer Harry."

He shrugged. "Yeah, guess so. Besides, the fun part isn't kicking his ass; it's how I kick his ass that matters. So how'd you slip past Dumbledore?"

"You know, he kicked up such a fuss when you were gone, getting everyone in the Order to help look for you that it was relatively easy to slip away in the chaos."

"He's probably gonna be pissed at me when I get back." Harry noted.

"Oh I have no doubt of it, but what can he do?"

"Absolutely nothing as usual, it's what makes getting killed at Hogwarts fun."

"Considering the various situations you find yourself in I'm not surprised if Lily were she alive went and dragged you out by your ear. Merlin knows I want to."

Harry sighed. "Sirius, all jokes aside... it may not seem like much but I've learnt a lot here. You know that I'm not just an ordinary teenager and I hate it when people treat me like one. I'm ready to fight a war, on my own terms if need be."

Sirius put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I know that, pup, and that's why you're here, I was hoping you'd be able to gain some perspective on what to do. So you're committed then? You really want to fight?"  
"I do. Tony... what do you think?"

The playboy snorted. "Kid, why are you asking me? Do what you think is right. If this psychopath is really gonna tear the place apart and you're the only one that can stop him... well it's stupid to think you'll sit by and do nothing right? Especially since now... you have the means to do so."

Sirius frowned. "What's Tony on about Harry?"

"I'll explain on the way back." Harry stood up in grim determination. "If Voldemort's preparing, gathering up his supporters, I'm going to do the same. I need to spread the word as fast as possible that he's back, even if officially no one thinks he is. And I'll use Hogwarts as a front to get ready."

The Marauder leaned in to his long-time friend. "You really gonna let him go through with this aren't you?"

"I know the feeling when you need to do something and you won't let anyone stop you. Harry needs to do this. Prophecy or not, he was made for this hero gig."

Sirius sighed. "It seems so. Whether he wants to or not."

-IM x HP-

Harry looked at his Iron Man suit in its storage container in deep contemplation.

He had fixed it up after his last battle and gone on a few skirmishes, and while it was more than ready for heavy-duty combat operations, against Dementors? Giants? Death Eaters? He wasn't exactly sure it would operate to specifications.

"Harry!"

He turned around in surprise. "Karen? I thought you were on lunch break."

"I was, but I came back." Her eyes were red and puffy; it looked like she had been crying. "Is it true? You're going back?"

Harry inwardly sighed, he had been hoping to avoid this conversation for as long as possible but it appeared not. "Yes, I'm going back. They need me."

"It's true then... Voldemort! He really is back!" Karen gasped.

He nodded, a part of him mentally noting that she wasn't afraid of the name. "He is. I was there when he was resurrected." Karen dipped her head, turning away from him as her gaze saddened. Harry frowned, moving towards her. "What's up?"

"You don't understand Harry..." she whispered. "It's... complicated."

Harry knew that her family had a dark past, and though it was not his business to pry, he was a naturally curious person, coupled with his deductive reasoning even the smallest hints she dropped became big clues. And despite their short time together, less than a month, they had become quite close, having to work together and see each other on a day and night basis had the tendency of doing that. Harry could get cheeky sometimes, but he knew when she was being serious and in those moments Harry knew it was not wise to joke. "You can trust me."

"It's not a matter of trust... I wish I could, but you'd hate me for it!"

"Never." Harry protested firmly. "Please, Karen, tell me."

Karen whimpered as she opened her mouth to speak. "W-When Voldemort was on the verge of winning the first war in Britain, he had already begun planning ahead. He had already sent messengers to the old families here in America, promising them power and wealth beyond their imaginations if they'd join him and help him establish a power base in the US. My family... was one of the first to respond and align themselves with him."  
Harry waited for her to continue silently.

"You don't understand, Harry, when my father learns that he's back, he will pledge support once again, a LeCeux never goes back on their word... oh God, when he finds out that I'm with y-y-you and Tony, his biggest competitor..." Her voice failed her as she burst into tears, running into Harry's arms.

He patted her awkwardly – it wasn't like he was experienced at this sort of thing. "It's okay, Karen, it's gonna be okay..."

"You don't understand! Running away is one thing, but he'll cast me out when he hears about this! I'll be worthless... oh God, I'll never see my little sister again! Or my mum, my uncle... and now I have to wait here, twiddling my thumbs while... you go and kill yourself against a dark lord?"

"Voldemort's days are numbered." Harry stated bluntly. "It's only a matter of time. In the meanwhile, no harm can come to you while you're here, no one knows about it and the security we put up here is impossible to crack without a knowledge of both magic and computer hacking, an unlikely combination. Your dad will never know, and even if he does, you will NOT be a target, because you will be under my protection."

Karen looked up at him, tears streaming down her confused face. "W-What?"

Harry gave her a small smile. "You're my friend Karen. Just say the word and I'll be there to protect you."  
"Thank you..." she whispered, tightening her hug. "B-But my family..."

"You'll see them again, don't worry. And trust me, I won't die. What else have we been doing in here but making sure of that?"

She laughed weakly. "You said yourself it's nowhere near ready..."

"Then we'll just have to work harder won't we?" He added, stroking her hair in a tender fashion. She sighed, leaning in closer towards him as Harry did so fondly of her.

"You know, I'm going to miss you..."

"It'll be like I've never gone. We're going to make sure of that, and rest assured we are going full-speed with our research," Harry determined stubbornly. "Screw OWLs, this is much more important."

"Especially if it means keeping you alive," Karen sniffled, before laughing. "If dad could see me now... he'd scream murder and try to pull us apart."

"If he did that he'd have me to contend with," Harry answered without thinking, before freezing. Did he just...?

Karen looked up in evident surprise. "Harry..."

"Yeah Karen?"

"Y-You know, don't you?"

"I think I do..."

"Then..."

Harry made the first move and kissed her, the culmination of both strong physical attraction, adoration, and eventually, warmth, closeness, and a true magnetism of the spirit. It was heated, it was done in the spirit of the moment – and neither wanted it any other way.

"Wow..." Karen breathed as they separated.

Harry frowned. "Weird at all?"

"No... It was right..."

"I thought so." Then they kissed again.

After ten minutes, the two decided they could do that later, and quickly they began packing up Harry's things. Karen was adamant that she go with Harry, but he was just as adamant in his refusal, knowing that she would be safe here and far away from any troubles.

The wizard looked at his lab setup sadly. "I really wish I could take it all with me."

"It's okay," Karen urged, slipping her hand into his, "I'll take care of it while you're gone, and I'm sure you won't need it."

Harry's mind began moving, shifting gears as he thought about ways to bring his lab to Hogwarts. His eyes widened. "Of course, I nearly forgot!" Quickly he pulled out his mirror, activating it. "Sirius, how much do you know about multi-compartment trunks?"

-IM x HP-

**Two days later**

"Well kid... it looks like this is it."

Pepper however rolled her eyes. "What Tony is trying to say without getting all dramatic is that we will see you again soon, won't we?"

"Right... that's exactly what I meant." Tony replied quickly.

Harry laughed. He was standing beside his godfather, hefting his new trunk which had been shrunken to the size of a bag that could easily be carried on his back in a duffel bag. "Tony, I've left my entire database and some of my research on our joint server, I suggest you start making upgrades should you ever deal with any magical threats. And don't worry Pepper. Also... Thanks. For everything."

Pepper nodded with a huge smile, taking Tony's arm. "Harry? You're always welcome back, whatever happens our door is always open to you."

"You can count on it, especially if this old fart can't take care of you." Tony winked.  
"Hey, I've been doing well so far haven't I?" Sirius protested. "And I'm sure that you'd make a _great_ dad Tony."  
"Now, now, boys, no fighting," Pepper interrupted before Tony could retort, rolling her eyes. "Get on board you two."

"Yes Pepper," Harry and Sirius chorused in joking unison as they made their way onto the military jet.

The two, and Happy and Rhodey a short distance away, watched as the jet turned, taxiing down the runway, before moments later it shot off, speeding across and up into the air, with quiet politeness until it was no more than a speck.

"Can I start crying now?" Pepper asked, feeling the tears building up.

"Yeah, you can start crying." Tony replied, turning her to face him.

At that, she burst into tears, weeping profusely into Tony's shoulder. "Why did they have to go back? Why can't they stay here? Why does Harry have to go off and fight, when he's just a teenager...?"

"It's okay, Pepper, he'll be fine, I've rubbed off on him after all..." Tony frowned as that had the unintended effect of making her cry harder. Quietly he turned to watch the jet, now a pinprick in the distance. "Give 'em hell, kid."

On board the plane, Harry looked out through the window, watching as the place he had gotten to know and love grew smaller and smaller, almost disappearing completely through the clouds.

Sirius noticed his mood. "You okay, pup?"

Harry nodded. "Fine, but let's not stay away for too long."

His godfather smiled. "Hell no."

The teenage prodigy leaned back into his seat, not at all uncomfortable with the rather frugal interior design. He had been through worse, and he was prepared to go to Hell and back, it was time to finally fight, he was ready to start a war.

His thoughts drifted back to Karen, and then Tony and the rest of his small family. He had something to fight for; something to return to, and no way was Voldemort going to take it.

-IM x HP-

"Well, Harry, welcome back to Grimmauld Place," Sirius said with a smile as a bus and a taxi later found them at the former Black residence.

Harry had been here previously when Sirius was smuggling him out to America but didn't have a good view of it since he was under his Invisibility Cloak at the time, now as he got a good look at the inside of the house he summed it up succinctly. "It really is a dump."

"Keep quiet," Sirius hissed. "Portrait remember?"

The two of them managed to sneak past Mrs Black without any difficulty, as Harry followed Sirius up the stairs. "Sirius – do Hermione and Ron think that I'm..."

"Missing? Unfortunately yes, couldn't have them blabbing to Dumbledore could we?"

Harry groaned. "Great... thanks, Sirius."

A familiar bushy-haired witch burst out of her room at the sound of voices. "Sirius! Have you found... HARRY!" Hermione rushed towards him and pulled him into a tight hug. "Don't ever run away like that again without telling me!"

"Does that mean next time you'll help me?" Harry joked.

"What were you thinking? Professor Dumbledore said that you needed to stay there!"

Harry's eyes became cold. "He said that, did he?"

Sirius was quick to jump in. "Harry, you have a choice, you can either share a room with Ron or have your own, except the empty bedroom's a little run down."

"I'll take the empty bedroom," Harry said without hesitation. "Talk later, Hermione."

Hermione looked like she had a thousand things to say as he walked off with Sirius, but instead resolved to fume and tell everyone she could that Harry had come back.

"Thanks for the save Sirius," Harry sighed in relief.

"Not a problem, I didn't think that you'd want _that_ kind of a welcome from your friends anyway – here we go." Sirius led Harry into an old, well-used bedroom. The place was literally crumbling apart, but the bed's framework was solid and aside from a few cobwebs it would do just fine – for a front anyway. "I'm guessing you won't be using the bed much?"

Harry pulled out his trunk, and with a glance to Sirius the older wizard enlarged it for him. He put his head over it as the ID system beeped and scanned him, before glowing affirmative and popping open. It didn't just recognise faces only, of course, it had been also configured to recognise a person's specific magical signature, which was impossible to duplicate making the system impossible to crack. "Come on down Sirius."

Sirius followed him into a glisteningly sleek white research laboratory, one Harry had tricked out himself. The Marauder looked around in astonishment at all the sophisticated equipment, his gaze eventually coming to rest on the Iron Man suit in its storage container. "Is that..."

"My Iron Man suit? Yes, it is," Harry stated, with a small amount of pride in his voice. "Fully combat ready but I'm going to build a new one to incorporate magic a bit more."

Sirius shook his head in absolute amazement. "When Tony told me that you had the intelligence equivalent of a prodigy, I thought he was pulling my leg! So it's all true then..." he sighed as Harry nodded. "Merlin's beard, I'm getting old. And all this works around magic?'

"Around magic, using magic. The idea was sound and we got a battery working that harnessed magic, the problem however was the circuits and wires that usually directed power couldn't take the amount of energy being harnessed. It was K... my assistant's idea that we substituted the copper wiring for common wizard metals found reacting naturally in magically-saturated areas, and build in a series of specially designed breakers to regulate the power flow."

Sirius was quite sure that the invention of a battery that could harness magic alone would have taken even the cleverest muggle-familiar wizard centuries to try and do.

Harry looked at his Iron Man suit in apparent frustration. "Although it works, I don't want such a system for my suit because of the serious power demands. Constantly drawing power from a magically saturated environment is all well and good, but what happens if I leave said area, say to explore some forgotten area of ocean? My suit's power would fail miserably and it's a right pain to build in a secondary power system when your suit's combat abilities all depend on magic. I want a completely internal magical circuit, but I need something that can focus and convert Arc Reactor energy to magical energy. The other aspects can be developed, though take time, but it's this that's really egging me."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually," Sirius answered. "Come on, we'd better get moving."

As they exited and Harry closed and locked down the trunk it appeared they had done so in the nick of time - as they came out into the corridor, it appeared that a small group was waiting to greet them.

"Bloody hell mate, good show!" Ron said, giving him a slap on the back.

Hermione gave him a scathing look. "Don't swear Ronald, and for your information, he did so directly against Professor Dumbledore's orders!"

Fred and George however sported matching grins.

"Considering how his dear aunt and uncle treat him..."

"We're surprised he didn't go sooner..."

"Now we're not usually in the..."  
"Habit of reiterating..."  
"Whatever our dear Ronald says but..."

"Good show mate!" They chorused in unison, earning a laugh from Ginny, Ron and Harry but yet another scathing look from Hermione.

"So where'd you go Harry?" Ginny asked, checking him out. A summer spent in beachside California had changed the lanky, pasty-looking teen. Harry now sported a healthy glowing tan and no longer looked like a stick – thanks to a great diet, with a few fast food exceptions, he had filled out and had grown taller, and with such a physically intensive job, he had also developed nice muscle tone. Add to that his brand new designer clothes…

"Oh you know, here and there," Harry said mysteriously. "So how have your summers' been?"

Sirius went off as the teens chatted amiably, though Hermione still shot him plenty of glares and kept stubbornly silent. The group were surprised at this new Harry, as his personality had undergone a complete turnover. Instead of the normally quiet and reserved boy they knew, this one was bold, confident, and unafraid to initiate conversation. For the rest of the afternoon and the night he continued to surprise them, such as when he initiated a hug with Mrs Weasley and shook Mr Weasley's hand in greeting. Mrs Weasley was extremely upset with him for 'running away' as was expected, though like the rest of the Weasleys understood why he would do such a thing considering what he had went through last year in addition to his horrid relatives.

Later that night, as Harry prepared to enter his trunk and do some late-night tinkering as he normally did, he was surprised when there was a quiet knock on his door. "Hey Hermione, I'm surprised you're still up," he greeted.

Hermione looked around at his room in disgust. "You're really not planning to sleep here are you?"

"I've been in worse," Harry answered, moving to the side for her. "Come in."

As soon as Harry closed the door behind her Hermione whirled on him bitterly. "Harry, I can't believe you ran away! Without telling any of us where you were going! Are you mad? With… him on the loose, you would have been an easy target without your magic!"

"Well considering I got no replies from any of you I very much doubted you cared about my holiday plans." Harry said coolly, but as intended Hermione flinched as if struck.

"I'm truly sorry Harry, but Dumbledore said that we weren't to owl you!"

"Then why didn't you use your brains?" Harry snapped. "I remember in first year you said wizards didn't often use logic and reasoning, why didn't you take advantage of that? What about sending things in code or disguising specific information? Better yet, why didn't you just do the muggle way and _ring me_?"

Hermione visibly shrunk, guilt evident in her face. "I…I didn't think of any of that."

"It's amazing how people can overlook such simple things," Harry stated.

"But that doesn't explain why you needed to run away!" Hermione protested.

"The reasons are so blatantly obvious I don't feel the need to explain it."

"Please, Harry…"

"Why should I?" He retorted. "After all… the Order is perfectly comfortably keeping things in the dark from me despite the fact that they clearly tell you. None of you guys see the need to inform me of anything, so I don't feel the need to inform _you_ of anything either."

"Harry you're being childish!" Hermione hissed.

"No, Dumbledore is being ignorant, ignorant about a lot of things. No doubt he is a great wizard and a master strategist and politician… however we aren't just chess pieces to be moved. We're people. Evidently he's ignorant of human nature, and the unknown element."

Hermione frowned. "The unknown element?"

"The things he thinks he has under control… but doesn't." Harry said cryptically. "No one can control everything Hermione, especially if we're talking about Voldemort. Sooner or later this year, I will face him, and you know this. Where was Dumbledore the last few times?" With that, Harry pushed Hermione out and slammed the door in her face, locking it.

He sighed, opening his trunk and walking down as it automatically closed behind him. "SAM? Open up a new project for me please."

"_As you wish Harry."_

He sat at the terminal, watching as his AI pulled out a blank holographic slate. "Open up the Mark IV plans for me." As the Iron Man suit appeared, Harry grabbed it and began deftly manipulating it. "I'm going to need to do some reconnaissance; can you open up the file for Project Shadow SAM?" As the relevant data came on screen, Harry flicked through it, pulling out the information he needed as a sleek unmanned fighter appeared beside his suit, as well as several odd-looking objects.

Harry lazily spun the Iron Man chassis, his mind thinking ahead. What he needed was information. This wasn't all-out war, at least not yet, it was now an information war. Voldemort wanted information, he wanted information, but he had one up on him because he knew where he was going to strike, where he needed to strike and that gave him a major, major edge, one he didn't have the last few times.

He knew where Voldemort was going to act, and that was the Department of Mysteries.


	7. Chapter 7

"Moony, old buddy, welcome back!" Sirius greeted as his friend stepped out of the fireplace.

"Don't give me that Sirius, where is he?" Remus asked. "Where's Harry?"

"I take it you're reporting for the Headmaster then." Harry came into the living room, dressed in a collared shirt, jeans and light grey shoes. "Hey Remus." He turned to his godfather. "Does he know?"

"It's okay Harry," Remus said in relief at seeing him. "Sirius told me enough, but that was only after you were long gone. Imagine my concern when he said that you had gone to stay with an old friend of his!"

Harry laughed. "I know, but don't worry; it turned out to be the right call to make."

"Thankfully so, I guess now I don't regret my decision not to tell Dumbledore anything. You look much better than when I last saw you, Harry. Where are the others?"

"They're out in Diagon Alley to get their school supplies, Mrs Weasley's taken the liberty of buying mine as well since I must be 'exhausted after my trip'," Harry explained. Suddenly, he froze, and spun around, wand in hand. "You can come out now or I'll start hexing."

"It's alright, lad, it's just me." The tell-tale thud of a peg leg told them all they needed to know about the third occupant of the house at the moment. "Well what do you know, the kid practices constant vigilance after all! Sirius and Remus, you should learn from him."

"Well it looks like everyone who knows about my… excursion is here then," Harry said, lowering his wand. "Does Dumbledore know I'm back?"

"I took the liberty of telling him," Remus informed the teenage wizard.

_And he's showing his usual level of concern._ "Good. Look, thanks, all of you. It was certainly a… enlightening trip."

"Sirius, you owe me a favour now for going behind Dumbledore's back," Moody stated with a crooked grin.

"Hey wait a sec! I thought you said you agreed he needed to get out!" Sirius protested.

"It's not easy running interference against Dumbledore you know, even if he's occupied with that idiot Fudge at the moment."

Remus sighed. "So I assume you know about what's happening in the wizard world?"

"I do, but I need to get my story out there," Harry said firmly. "I'll start with Hogwarts first, I think. Could you guys keep me informed if Voldemort makes a move on the prophecy?"

Immediately Moody's revolving eye and Remus sharply turned to Sirius. "You told him?"

"No, he figured it out…" Sirius grumbled.

To Harry's surprise the ex-Auror burst into hearty laughter. "Not bad, kid, we'll make a dark wizard catcher out of you yet!"

The opening of a door and the scuffling of feet indicated that the Weasleys were back – after they had gotten past the portrait, their voices grew to their original volume as Moody and Remus disappeared, leaving Sirius and Harry to welcome them back.

"Harry, dear, I put your books and supplies in a bag for you." Mrs Weasley said, handing it over.

"Thanks Mrs Weasley," Harry dug into his pocket and pulled out a few galleons. "This should be enough to pay for it all."

"Oh no, Harry, I couldn't take this…"

"Please do," he said firmly, shoving it into her hands. "I'm not a charity case, I'm paying you back."

"Well, dear, if you're sure..."

"Of course I am." Harry grabbed his things, ignoring Hermione's thoughtful look as he passed her, before going up the stairs, throwing them into his room then coming back down again. He was timely interrupted however, when the twins appeared and grabbed each of his arms, moving him away from the living room and towards somewhere more private.

"Harry!"

"Our silent partner!"  
"Financial backer!"

"Saviour of our woes!"

"We would like to inform you that thanks to your generous donation..."

"We have managed to buy a property in Diagon Alley!"

Harry bit his lip, trying to control his laughter – being around the twins was always a blast. "That's great, but why'd you tell me that? I thought my influence ended after giving you that prize money."

"You see dear Harry..."

"We are in your gratitude..."

"For being so generous!"

"If there is anything, anything at all the twins can do for you..."

"Get back at a teacher..."

"Order a special item..."

"Prank Malfoy..."

"Then you just have to give us a holler."

Harry took all this in thoughtfully. The twins were undeniably genius, and it could be useful to have them on his side. "You know, there is something that you guys could do..."

"Just name it ickle Harry," they chorused.

"I guess I don't have to tell you that Voldemort's back and quite frankly given my reputation for getting into tight spots I could use a bit of an edge."

Quickly the twins turned away, whispering to each other for a moment before turning back a few moments later. "That's a perfectly acceptable request."

"Yes, perfectly acceptable indeed!"

"We'll come up with something a little more potent than our usual products against You-Know-Who, and tell you about it as soon as possible."

Harry grinned. "That's fantastic guys, make sure you get enough for several people."

"Don't worry, we think of everything!"  
"Right you are Fred! Everything!"

As Harry walked off, he didn't notice Hermione listening in with a deep frown on her face.

-IM x HP-

The very next day, Harry was woken early for breakfast as it was the day they would return to Hogwarts.

Harry was not looking forward to going back. Whatever he could learn at Hogwarts he could learn on his own or with the help of tutors, and he would rather go back to America anyway. He had taken a look at the Fifth year curriculum and it was amazing just how behind the British magical education system was, especially compared to the American system. It seemed that the heated competition between Soviet Russia and America had extended even to the magical worlds as the American magical education system was incredibly tough, but thanks to his vast mental boost due to Tony's knowledge and Karen's help Harry had absorbed much of it, the important bits anyway.

An hour later found Harry and co at Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Sirius had insisted he accompany the group in dog form, and as they said their farewells the dog jumped on Harry, giving him a lick but then a stern expression that looked odd on a canine. The message, however was clear.

"I'll give 'em hell Sirius," Harry whispered as the dog licked him again in approval.

"There's the whistle, you'd all better get on now. Have a great year at Hogwarts, dears!" Mrs Weasley said, giving them all a wave as they boarded.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley!" Hermione said with a smile, waving back. "Ron! Wave to your mother!"

Reluctantly, Ron raised his hand and gave a sort of half wave. The twins gave her large, exaggerated waves, while Harry and Ginny waved back at her politely as the train began to move.

"Come on Ron, there'll be a Prefects' meeting in the front carriage..." she looked back at Harry and Ginny apologetically. "I'm really sorry about this..."

"It's okay, you go on," Harry urged. "You can come find us later."

With that, the two left, arguing and bickering on the way.

Ginny rolled her eyes at the pair. "Don't you ever get tired of them arguing?" she asked sarcastically.

"Trust me, you think this is annoying, wait till you see them on a bad day," Harry retorted. "Come on, let's find a place to sit."

As the pair walked down the corridor, looking for some spare seats, Ginny tried to strike up some conversation. "You know, I'm surprised you weren't chosen for Prefect."

Harry shrugged. "I don't mind, that means more time for me."

"Aren't you shocked at all that Ron made Prefect?" Ginny pressed.

_I don't really give a damn when there are more important things to do. _"I'm sure Professor McGonagall had a reason for choosing him, she doesn't just do these things on a whim you know..."

"Potter!"

Harry looked up from his mental meandering, he had been trying to figure out how to resolve the issue of replacing the ionic plasma channels before that familiar venomous voice broke him out of it. "Malfoy," he greeted neutrally. "I suggest you step aside."

"You'd better watch your back this year Potter!" Draco snapped, bumping into him deliberately.

Suddenly Harry's eyes widened as if in apparent understanding. "Ah, I'm sorry, Malfoy, but you know, I don't swing that way..."

"Wait what? W-W-W-What are you talking about?" Draco demanded with a squeak. "I'm not gay!"

"Hmm, you know it's so obvious now, the constant passes, your deliberate need for my attention regardless of its type..."

"Shut up Potter!"

"Your need to seek me out, and if not me then my friends...ah!" Harry nodded to his thugs. "It makes sense why they're around you all the time considering you're..."

"Let's go!" Draco yelled, moving away as quickly as he could with a beet red face.

"I'll tell Pansy for you!" Harry shouted after him, as Ginny behind him continued to laugh hard long after he left. To Ginny he gave a smirk. "That'll teach him. I read a bit this summer, and apparently it's quite a serious crime in old pureblood families like the Malfoys to be homosexual."

Ginny nodded in agreement. "It's true, you can be cast out for it... hey look, there's some empty compartment seats over there!"

"Cool..." Harry gave a wry grin when he recognised Neville, opening the door for Ginny before coming in. "Hey Neville, what's up?"

The pudgy teenager flashed him a nervous smile as he hefted his plant. "Nothing much, Harry..."  
"Good summer at all?"

Neville brightened. "Great summer, I've been working in the gardens on this plant, a Mimbulus Mimbletonia, I'm going to show it to Professor Sprout!"

Harry began to reply, but as he saw the plant squirt out some black ink he ducked, missing it as it hit the wall behind him. "Easy there Neville!" he said with a laugh, taking out his wand. With a flick, he vanished the black ink.

Neville looked at him sheepishly. "Sorry, Harry." He quickly put the plant aside.

"That's fine, Nev..." Harry turned, and saw a very strange, dirty blonde-haired girl staring back at him with big, silvery eyes. "Hi."

"Hello. You're Harry Potter." She stated.

"That I am. And you are?" Harry inquired.

Ginny piped in. "That's Luna... Luna Lovegood."

Harry gave her a Stark-worthy grin. "Huh. Hey there, Luna Good-to-Love."

Luna blinked. Then burst into full-blown laughter, full-blown, hearty, belly-shaking laughter. "Good-to-Love...Good-to-Love! Hahahaha!"

Harry also blinked, and then when she burst into laughter, began laughing also. Neville and Ginny gave each other a weird glance, before, without knowing exactly what was going on, began nervously laughing as well.

Luna's laughter lasted for a full five minutes, before she stopped. "What were we laughing about again?"

Harry shrugged. "Do we really need a reason to laugh?"

At that Luna and Harry began laughing again.

-IM x HP-

After a full-blown conversation in the carriage that continued up till the castle, consisting of everything from yetis, Iron Man being an endangered magical creature and Sirius Black being Stubby Boardman, Harry and Luna reluctantly parted ways.

"What were you doing talking to her?" Hermione demanded as Neville, Ginny and Luna left. "Don't you know what people call her? They call her..."

"Well let me ask you a question Hermione," Harry snapped back. "What does the Daily Prophet call me these days?"

Hermione quickly shut up. Eventually she didn't talk all throughout dinner, even to comment on that clearly deranged Umbridge woman. This made for the most pleasant Hogwarts dinner Harry had ever experienced, that was, until Hermione reminded Ron that they needed to direct the First Years towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

Thankfully Harry was able to dissect and remake Iron Man armours in his head in relative peace, that was, until he entered the Common Room.

"Eveninng Seamus," he greeted absentmindedly, mentally moving on to applying current nanotechnology to the suits. "How was your summer?"

The boy looked at him with a surly face. "Alright. You know, me mum wanted to pull me out of Hogwarts this year."

Harry frowned. He had been playing with a gyroscope while relaxing in the sofa but put it down now. "Why's that?"

"Let me see..." the boy said sarcastically. "Because of you. The Prophet's been saying a lot of things about you, and Dumbledore."

Harry paused. He slipped the gyroscope back into his pocket and stood up, facing Seamus coolly.

The Irish teenager only just now realised that the normally lanky, hunched-shouldered Harry had changed. He carried himself with an aura of clear confidence, in addition to his obvious muscle tone, tanned skin and almost glowing green eyes – unconsciously he backed off.

"Let me make some things clear," Harry stated, then turned to the rest of the Common Room. He had captured their full attention by now. "Let's start off with the basic facts shall we? Both Cedric and I took the Tri-Wizard cup, thinking it would be a Hogwarts victory. You all know that. The Cup turned out to be a Portkey, and you all saw me as I came back, worse for wear, suffering prolonged Cruciatus exposure, battle scars, and carrying Cedric's dead body. I know we're not Ravenclaws... but it should be immediately obvious what had happened in that time frame." Harry stood up on a chair, eyes blazing as he addressed the Gryffindors. "I was there. I fought him, the evidence is staggering. I'll make an Unbreakable Vow if need be. If you want to ignore my word, and Dumbledore's word, then fine, but don't say I didn't warn you. Bear in mind that this is Dumbledore we're talking about. The same one who fought Grindelwald! If anyone knew anything about dark lords, it would be him, and guess what? Even he is supporting this." Harry paused, then dropped down onto the floor, his audience completely enraptured at the teenager who stared at them with world-weary, but determined, strong eyes. "I don't give a damn what the Prophet's saying. Were they there? Did they witness his return? No, they didn't, I haven't given any interviews, and quite frankly they should have pieced everything together. But guess what? _I don't give a damn._ Because I warned you all. When you've finished burying your head in the sand, it'll be too late because by then he'll have built up his army and you can't ignore him anymore. It's either run, fight or hide. Guess what I'll be doing? If you want to get along with your lives and ignore it... fine. But as for me? I'll fight him to my last breath. If you don't want to believe it? Then fine, don't. Run as fast as you like, and _don't get in my way_. It's the very least you could do." Harry snapped, spitting the last part out sarcastically, climbing the stairs up to the Boys' Dormitories.

Making his way to his bed, Harry glanced down at his silver watch. Instead of showing the correct time, however, it showed a countdown screen, and in glowing blue digits read 01:49:30. He went down into his trunk and retrieved his Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map, already knowing ahead of time he wouldn't get much sleep as he exited the Common Room silently and unseen.

He made his way towards the Girls' bathroom on the second floor, towards a place he had once sworn never to visit again yet by necessity and opportunity was driven to – the Chamber of Secrets.

"_Open,"_ he hissed to the small snake sculpture underneath the tap, and sure enough, like it had in Second Year, the wall moved aside. Taking a deep breath, and casting a few quick cushion charms on himself, Harry jumped in.

"Ouch!" he yelped, stumbling a bit on the rocks. His voice echoed through the vast cavern, and as he flicked his wand and shone a bright beam of light through the once legendary Chamber of Secrets, a rancid smell filled his nostrils. "Ugh, fantastic, a rotting corpse..."

To his surprise however, though the insides of the basilisk's flesh was rotting, its hide was fresh, as if it had only been killed several minutes ago. From under his robes, Harry pulled out a smooth white box, and out of one of the compartments took an odd-looking tool with a saw attached to it.

Putting on clean surgical gloves, he flicked on the device and held it up to the basilisk hide, watching as it began digging into the thick basilisk hide. That saw was razor-sharp and could cut through even the thickest and strongest metals with ease – to his astonishment, it made slow progress as it cut into the hide. It took several minutes of strong cutting before it was able to take out enough of a chunk for analysis. Tiny pincers retrieved the chunk, and Harry placed it in a small disposable plastic hazards bag delicately.

As he pocketed the small retrieval kit, Harry looked through the cavern. _I wonder where it ends_. His curiosity overtaking him, Harry walked through the Chamber of Secrets, following the trail, and half an hour later via additional use of the pipes saw in astonishment that he was out of Hogwarts and in the Forbidden Forest. If he cleared and fixed this place up a bit, he could use it as a base of operations.

Harry grinned as he made his way back. "Yeah," he whispered with a smirk. "I have a secret lair."

-IM x HP-

The watch on his wrist had finished its countdown and was now blinking 00:00:00, but Harry swiftly discarded it as he walked onto the raised platform.

Immediately, multiple robotic arms came out of the platform, holding pieces of his newly assembled armour. Harry stepped into the boots, his eyes hard and unyielding as they swiftly forged the new Iron Man suit around him, finishing with the helmet.

As it snapped into place, the HUD screen burst to life with a brand new gleaming blue interface – it was a beta version of the new Iron Man software he had been developing. Harry turned around, looking as readouts appeared over his Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map, lying to one side, and he knew that it was close to completion.

"_Vital signs are all looking promising. Energy readout is nominal." _

"Good," Harry responded. "How are the optical fibre networks?"

"_They are working in perfect synchronisation with the poly-carbon head holographic generators."_

"Then testing stealth capabilities...now!" With that, the Iron Man shimmered, and suddenly vanished out of view without even a ripple.

"_Checking thermal, infrared and night-vision imaging, no detection at all. The holographic generators are working perfectly in projecting images of the surrounding area onto the suit's outer surface. You are for all purposes and intents, invisible."_

"Excellent." Harry phased back into sight again. Kitted out in reflective black, the new Iron Man Stealth suit looked fearsome. Sleeker than the Mark IV, it was constructed to be the perfect reconnaissance armour in both muggle and magical environments. State-of-the-art Stark Industries force-field technology and wave modifiers bent radar waves around the suit, and the heat signature from his repulsors were washed out by bursts of super-cooled air. Advanced dampeners also made him impossibly silent.

Harry had tinkered with the possibility of different, more specialised Iron Man suits, and while their actual designs lay in Tony's archives, he could recall the information perfectly in his head. It was how he fashioned everything so quickly, and thanks to the advanced lab he had the foresight to set up, his plan could come to fruition.

Harry powered up, and flew off, exiting the trunk and twisting around, hurtling through the Chamber of Secrets towards the exit, giving a whoop as he looked out towards the night sky. "SAM, activate a beacon for me to the Ministry of Magic building."

"_Because you are mentally inept of finding it yourself sir?"_

"Just do it, SAM."

His HUD blinked with a flashing marker and a dial indicating the precise distance away. Harry did a barrel roll, twisting around, streaking towards his target faster than the speed of sound. "YEAHHHH! This beats a train or broomstick any day!" Whenever he got into one of these suits, Harry couldn't help but feel excited. This was flying at its best, the suit responded to his every move, at a speed no wizard could ever match. "Did I install an internal music system SAM?"

"_You specifically requested it to be a permanent addition to all of your suits."_

"Oh yeah, I remember now!" Harry grinned as he opened up the music playlist, flicking through the choices available. Living the good life in the USA had allowed him to embrace fully what the world had to offer other than dark lords and killing. "This one seems appropriate."

The massive, distorted starting riff from AC/DC's 'Back in Black' began playing, and Harry smirked as he locked his arms together and accelerated faster towards his destination. With music playing in the background and flying through the air, Harry was relaxed enough to think clearly. He needed to make plans, loads of plans.

Sometime later, Harry found himself hovering over the Ministry of Magic building. "SAM, do a complete thermal scan of the building would you?" he asked as he activated his holographic camouflage and flew into the building, his advanced dampeners making him a ghost in the dark.

Harry was extremely confident in his suit's abilities, but even he was surprised at the lack of security in the building. As he made his way towards the Department of Mysteries, he saw virtually no guards, at all. Sirius had told him Fudge was afraid Dumbledore was raising an army – quite frankly, Dumbledore could take over the Ministry singlehandedly.

"_Thermal imaging scans complete Harry. At the moment, there is a guard underneath an Invisibility Cloak in the Department of Mysteries."_

Harry groaned. "Probably on Dumbledore's orders. What a fool. Even if he could escape there'd be no way for him to raise an alert in time if Death Eaters attacked." To accentuate his point, Harry flew down and raised his hand, touching the Cloak. His suit hummed as it gave off a short burst of electricity, strong enough to knock someone out cold. His suit flickered back into view as he did so – it was a reconnaissance suit, not a combat suit, and was very ill-equipped in the weapons department, only possessing enough power for two to three repulsor bursts at the most. It relied mostly on distractive devices for a quick getaway or weapons that incapacitated.

Harry turned around, observing the empty corridor through his HUD as he explored the Department, recording everything as he went. "Activate the remotes, SAM."

His suit gave a mechanical whir as four orbs floated out of it, activating their glowing visual receptors as they cast out beams of light. They hummed as they floated away, Harry watching their progress through his HUD, constantly recording their footage.

Several minutes passed by before they returned, and Harry, through his HUD issued them another command. At strategic and discrete points, the remotes attached themselves to the ceiling, adjusting their visual receptors to gain maximum viewpoint. With all the magic in the air, they would last well throughout the year, and allow him to track Voldemort's movements better than any guard on duty could.

That done, Harry made his way towards the exit, and as he flew through the night sky he prepared to execute the next part of his plan. "SAM, could you dial Sirius for me?"

A minute later, Sirius' face appeared in a small window. "Hey Harry, what's up? Wait... what's that sound?"

"I'm, uh, jogging..."

"In the middle of the night?"

"Why are you still up Sirius? I thought you'd be pissed off and tired as hell."

"Oh, I'm with Remus at the moment. We're just having a couple of drinks, you know, reminiscing about the good times."

"So there's no one else in Grimmauld Place?"

"Nope, why's that?"

"Hey listen, did you get several large crates from America?" He could see Sirius' surprised look.

"I did... are those for you?"  
"Yeah, they were meant to come after we arrived, so where are they now?"

"They're in the foyer at the moment. How are you going to get them though?"

Harry smirked as he deactivated his dampeners and let the roar of his repulsors come through. "Look out your window!" He laughed as he saw Sirius move the mirror and look outside, his face gaping in shock before he dropped it and ran outside.

Fully dressed in his sleek black armour, Harry must have been a fearsome sight for the two Marauders. He hovered over the garden for a moment, before dropping down with a thud, his helmet popping open.

"Bloody Merlin..." Remus breathed, looking him over in astonishment.

Sirius however shook his head in absolute amazement. "Good entrance pup, Prongs would've been proud."

"I'm not in the mood to explain, I need to get back to Hogwarts," Harry said as he stomped through the door, and looked towards the crates.

"Shouldn't we put a lightening charm...?" Remus was silenced however as Harry easily hefted the large crates, and came stomping back out.

"Sirius can tell you. Thanks for that, see you guys later!" With that, Harry powered up his repulsors, and shot off, his form a blur until he was obscured by the inky night sky.

Remus narrowed his gaze towards his best friend. "You'd better start explaining."

-IM x HP-

"Harry… Harry!"

"Hmm huh?" The teenaged wizard grumbled, resting his head on his book.

"Harry!"

"Oh I'm awake, I'm awake!" Harry shot up, turning to find the source of the sound groggily. "Hi Hermione."

The witch however gave him an acid look. "Were you even listening to what I was saying?"

Harry raised an eyebrow, then flopped back onto his book, prepared to go back to sleep – except his friend bopped him over the head with her DADA textbook. "Ouch! Okay, I'm up! And to answer your question… nope."

Ron sniggered.

"Well you should! Especially considering what that… Umbridge woman is doing!" She hissed.

"Honestly Hermione, when I realised we would be doing nothing I thought my time would be better wasted having a sleep at the back of the class." Harry stated, rubbing his head. "Looks like you've actually found a use for that book other than binning it."

"Mate, what were you doing last night?" Ron asked. "You've been tired all morning."

"You know this and that." Harry replied evasively. "It's not surprising considering Umbridge is a Ministry representative and Fudge's undersecretary."

Hermione's eyes widened. "She's what?"

"Or something of the sort. Didn't you see that picture of Fudge in her office? I saw it when she went there as we came out of class. I expect they must be quite cosy."

"This is worse than I thought," Hermione muttered contemplatively.

"Got that right. Sirius told me that Fudge was afraid of Dumbledore, afraid of him raising a student army to overtake the Ministry."

"That's bollocks!" Ron said in disbelief. "Bloody hell, if he thinks that, with You-Know-Who around, we're easy targets!"

Harry frowned at Hermione's look. "You know, when I see that look of yours Hermione I know you're up to something. What is it?"

However Hermione didn't respond. Ron was clearly being obtuse, as he was looking in a complete other direction. "You know, Malfoy hasn't bothered us at all today. I wonder why that is?"

Harry turned around, and saw Draco glaring at them. He gave him a smirk and the Slytherin averted his gaze before storming off. "Must've been something I said. Anyway, I'd better get moving."

"Mate, where you going?"

"Uh… bathroom," Harry said, grabbing his bag and walking off.

Ron paid him no heed as he bit into another lasagne. "Blimey, he's been going to the bathroom all day!" He glugged down some pumpkin juice, and helped himself to another plate of sausages. "Hope he's not eating too much!"

Hermione however stared after Harry's form with clear suspicion. She leapt out of her seat, and walked off, tailing him.

As Harry made his way towards his base of operations, he narrowed his eyes as he looked in a window and saw Hermione hot on his tail. However he continued moving, though at a faster speed.

Hermione raced after him, her mind working at a furious pace. What was Harry up to? He had changed a lot over the summer, and even from when he came back acted oddly… in a rational way. He was too cool, too logical, and she followed him as he walked towards the Second Floor and turned a corner – Hermione burst into a sprint, intending to catch up to him, but to her shock as she rounded the corner he had vanished.

Immediately her rational mind concluded there was no way he could have moved that fast. He must've been under his Invisibility Cloak, a quick sprinkle of transfigured dust…

She froze as she felt the tip of a wand on her neck, dead behind her. "I didn't know we following our friends like common criminals, Hermione."

Hermione gulped, and struggled to find her voice. "I-I d-didn't know we kept secrets from them either."

"You're in no position to talk about secrets," Harry stated, casting a privacy ward around them. "There. Now what do you want?"

"Harry… you've changed."

"We all know that. Is that all you came to tell me?"

"Please, Harry, let us in! We're your friends, you can tell us everything…" Hermione pleaded.

"That's clearly a double standard. So you want me to tell you, despite the fact that you keep things from me, and go tell Dumbledore."

"He's the Headmaster…"

"That doesn't give him the right to interfere in my life!" Harry snapped, raising his wand dangerously. "I had a father. I had a mother. They gave their lives for me. Now I have my godfather, and I know he'd give his life for me in a heartbeat, and I'd do the same. Dumbledore… he isn't my grandfather. We're not related in any way. What gives him the right to interfere specifically in my life?"

"Harry, you're being childish…"

He rolled his eyes. "Not this conversation again. I'm not being childish. I'm placing my faith in Sirius, who should have taken care of me instead of my _beloved_ relatives. And most importantly, I'm placing faith in myself. I don't have to rely on Dumbledore any longer, and quite frankly I never did these past few years."

"So you really think you can take on Voldemort by yourself?" Hermione challenged. "Without any help? You're being arrogant…"

"In the end it'll be him and me. I know it already. This isn't just about Dumbledore is it? It's about us." Harry deflected her challenge right back at her, and she knew it.

"But we've been through so much together…"

"I have, you haven't… Okay fine, I might need some help to fight off his army, I'll give you that, but do you really think you have what it takes to stand and fight at my side?" Harry asked, and with a smirk, walked through the corridor. "Class won't start for another half an hour, and this floor is relatively empty anyway." With that, he began flicking his wand, erecting notice-me-not charms around the area and generally cleaning it up.

Hermione looked at him worriedly. "What are you doing?"

"We're going to have a wager," Harry said, standing on the end of the corridor. "On a duel."

"A duel?"

"Not frightened are you? After all, you're the cleverest witch of your generation. I'm just an average student who got lucky a few times. You know what happened. So we're going to duel. It's simple. You win, and I tell you and Dumbledore everything that's happened to me, and never question him or you again. I'll even make an Unbreakable Vow."  
Hermione bit her lip thoughtfully. It was very tempting… "And if you win?"

"I get the satisfaction of knowing that you won't bother me about this again." At her hesitant look he laughed. "Come on Hermione. I'm just an average student. Barely passing in all my classes. I slept through most of them today. You're brilliant, right? Why don't you prove it instead of shoving it in our faces all the time?"

Hermione growled, knowing she was being goaded, but by Merlin… he was right, she _had_ been called the cleverest witch of her generation – she knew plenty more than he did, quite frankly she was always right, and if she could shut him up while she was at it... "Fine. I'll do it!"

Harry smiled. Unknown to Hermione was the fact that though she was not the first, she would certainly not be the last in a long list of people who would seriously underestimate Harry Potter. "Good. First, we bow…" they did so, and Harry looked towards her, wand not even in his hand. "I'll let you go first."

Hermione gave him a scathing look, ready to teach Harry a lesson as she raised her wand, and started throwing the strongest and nastiest spells she could think of, spells that she was sure he didn't know.

Harry smirked, watching her moves. To him, having spent so much time moving at Mach 5 or higher, twisting, dodging and attacking through high-speed combat situations, she was like a granny. Hermione telegraphed all her moves with wide swings of her wand, and her spell choices were extremely predictable. He simply leaned or sidestepped them, watching her every move, smirking as he did so.

Hermione however looked on in fury as he didn't even bother to fight back! He simply had that maddening smirk as she threw everything she had at him, and it was driving her mental! "REDUCTO!" she screamed, putting all her power behind it.

Harry laughed as he finally brandished his wand and watched the spell, eager to time his next trick perfectly. As it came towards him he merely flicked his wand, bouncing the spell off the tip, and deflected it back towards her.

Hermione gaped at the extraordinary move, a move she had only seen adult wizards… no, expert duellists do, and hit the floor, watching as her spell blew apart everything in its path. She raised her wand, quickly getting up, eyes wary for his next move.

Harry laughed, and flicked his wand, so subtly and deftly that Hermione barely caught the motion – a spell shot at her with a speed she had never seen, and when it hit her she had no time even to conjure a shield as her wand went flying out of her grip, and into Harry's outstretched hand.

To her shock he threw it back. "Best of four… go!"

Before Hermione could even think about moving her wand was in Harry's hand again, and he had thrown it back – as soon as she did, she quickly moved to cast a spell but yet again Harry beat her to it, and had her wand in his hand again!

"Last round, I'll wait three seconds before casting another spell. One…"

Hermione threw a stunner which he deflected in the same manner.

"Two…"

She tried to summon a vase towards him but he slashed his wand downwards and overpowered her spell.

"THREE!"

Barely half a second later Hermione found herself upside down, silenced, bound and gagged, with her wand yet again in Harry's hand.

"Hmm, let's see…" Harry said with his wand on his chin in a mockingly thoughtful manner. "Loud verbal casting, meaning your opponent blatantly knows what spell you're going to use next. Slow reaction time. Pronounced and wide wand movements. Telegraphed, predictable spell use. Easy to rile up." He shook his head. "Oh, dear, we are in trouble aren't we?" Harry sneered in his best Snape impersonation. "I'd say you have ten seconds, fifteen seconds at the most, before a Death Eater has disarmed, tortured and killed you." He dropped her wand on the floor and flicked his own one again, letting her fall to the floor in a heap. "Now don't ever follow me again. We can still hang out but don't ever think you have a chance of fighting by me when the time comes."

Hermione bowed her head, red-faced in embarrassment. "Then please. Teach me." She pleaded.

Harry barely missed a beat. "No."

"Teach _us_."  
"I just said no, are you deaf?"

"Please Harry. I'm… I'm sorry. You're right. It has to be you and… him. At the end. But we can do our best to keep his supporters away while you… you finish it."

"That time will come quicker than you think. Neither of us are very patient people." Harry turned around to regard her coolly. Those fierce emerald orbs, now glowed not with just curiosity, but knowledge, almost like he knew something no one else did, and the curiosity shining through them now seemed absolutely insatiable. But there was something foreboding in them - a grim, yet fiery determination and resolve, readiness for what was yet to come. "This isn't about school marks anymore. This is war. Are you prepared to do it Hermione? Are you prepared to make that sacrifice?"

"I'd follow you to hell and back," Hermione declared firmly.

"Considering Voldemort's powers you just might have to," Harry said in an ominous tone. "Even if it means acting against Dumbledore?"  
"I… yes. Yes it does. He fought the good fight last time…"

"The good fight we very nearly lost?" Harry interrupted.

"… Now it's time for us to step in. You're right Harry, I'm sorry… he didn't fight you-know-who the last few times. It was you. You fought him and you beat him off, you, not Dumbledore, and it'll be you he fights at the end. It's always been about you… and your, your saving people thing…"

Harry chuckled. "Good. I'm happy to have you on board Hermione, but you're going to have to earn my trust again before I show you anything. Can you live with that?"

She nodded. "That's fair. And I _will_ earn it again."

"I hope you do…" Harry paused. "Hey Hermione, what do you know about goblin metals?"


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Those of you concerned with Hermione's presence in the story – she is a follower. That is it. Harry is too intelligent to be bothered organising the logistics of the DA or looking up random things because he knows he has better things to do like building Iron Man suits, and her role in the story is minimal other than occasional research. I repeat: Harry is BADASS. Hermione is NOT.

-IM x HP-

"You know Harry, you could still return to America. You said it yourself, whatever you could learn at Hogwarts you could learn there. You'd be safe and you'd be far away from the Ministry's grubby fingers."

Harry smiled. "I know Sirius. But what would I become? A selfish asshole really. If I'm the only one that can stop him it would be silly of me to return to America and wait for him to strike first right? Here, I can bring the fight to him, and I can warn those closest around me, before it's too late."

"You're being awfully confident about this Harry... something I should know?"

"I'm actually standing in an alleyway beside the Hog's Head. Hermione's organised a meeting of students, she wants me to teach them all how to fight."

Sirius gave a barking laugh. "Is that right? This'll really stick it to the Ministry. Well there's no one else more suited to the task, hope you go easy on them."

"Don't worry, I don't plan to."

"By the way, though I'm happy that you managed to mend bridges with Hermione, be wary. She's clever, and she'll put two-and-two together quickly, but as you know she has certain... character tendencies. Also, you need to be sure of her loyalties."

"I understand Sirius," Harry answered. "The very moment I learn she's blabbed to Dumbledore, or she tries to boss me around, she's out."

"Be wary Harry. Don't make the same mistake Dumbledore made in choosing his allies, quite frankly our mistake as well all those years ago."

"I'll be careful. I have to go Sirius; I can see a group arriving now, look like Gryffindors."

"Right then. Voldemort has been awfully quiet lately, we haven't heard anything, and I expect he'll try something soon. Oh yeah, and Tony called, he told me to say hi."

"Thanks for the heads-up Sirius. And tell Tony I say hi back." And with that, Harry pocketed his mirror, cancelling the privacy ward and went back into the Hog's Head. "The Gryffindors are all arriving now," he informed Ron and Hermione.

"Blimey mate; with your little speech back a while ago I'm not surprised!" Ron exclaimed.

"They're a little early," Hermione said, looking at her watch. "We'll wait for the rest of the group to arrive."

"How many people did you invite exactly Hermione? I thought it was just going to be a small group." Harry asked.

"Well, you know how things seem to explode around you."

At that Harry burst into laughter. "Oh they certainly do!" he joked, enjoying the little pun that only he knew.

Several minutes later found a relatively large, and rather eclectic mix of students comprised from the three Houses that Harry actually liked – though he didn't mind staring at Daphne Greengrass's or Tracey Davis' ass every once in a while.

Hermione waited a moment before getting up. "Hello everyone, thank you all for coming..." she froze as Harry stepped in front of her, motioning for her to sit down.

"Thanks for that Hermione, I'll take care of the rest," he said to the laughter of many of the students. As she sat down he gave her a strong warning look that was a clear reminder: he was leading this thing, not her, and she shouldn't have acted without his consent. "As you all know the Ministry is poking its nose into Hogwarts. It's done this a couple of times before and every time it's turned out to be a mess, and this is going to be yet another one of those times. And you all know who it comes in the form of... Umbridge."

There was no hesitation at this, many of the students nodding their heads or murmuring in agreement. Nobody liked Umbridge.

"She's poking her nose where it doesn't belong, and from what I've heard she's not afraid to toe, even cross the line to do it. Not to mention her abysmal teaching. We'll all be failing under her regime, but that's not the important part. The important part is that we'll be unprepared for what's out there."

"That's a bloody lie!"

Harry narrowed his gaze as the Hufflepuff boy jumped up.

"Oi!" Ron snapped. "What's your name kid?"

"Zacharias Smith," he answered brusquely. "You and Dumbledore are lying. The Prophet and Ministry said so!"

"And you seriously believe the Ministry has your best interests at heart considering we're meeting like this?" Harry demanded incredulously, shooting his accusation down. "Let's be perfectly logical about this. We can do that, can't we, instead of jumping to conclusions?" he narrowed his gaze towards the boy who shrunk under it. "A captured Death Eater claimed that he was back. Dumbledore, defeater of the last great dark lord, one of the greatest wizards of this century, and much better than all of us at magic, says he's back. Cedric would tell you he's back as well but considering that Voldemort..." he rolled his eyes at the expected gasps and shrieks, "killed him, he's not really talkative these days. And finally... I. Was. There. I fought him, and I escaped to tell the tale. He is back, full stop, finished, the end. He's out there building his army now, and would you rather sit here hoping his Death Eaters don't find you or actually be able to fight back and defeat them?"

Several of the Gryffindors began cheering at this point. "Yeah Harry! We're going to kick their dark-arts asses!" Fred yelled.

"This isn't about grades now, although rest assured you'll get plenty of good ones from this. This isn't even about survival. This is about winning." With that, he nodded at Hermione who stepped up.

"Those of you who want to join can sign this sheet of parchment. A word of warning, it'll also ensure that those who go telling about this to the wrong people get their comeuppance. You'll each get a charmed galleon which will warm up and show the time and date of the next meeting, so keep them safe. Anything else?"

"Do we need a name?" Cho asked.

Harry shrugged; he hadn't really thought much about names. "Anyone got any ideas?"

It was the twins who responded first. "It's quite obvious..."

"Who's the leader here..."

"And quite frankly..."

"We wouldn't have it any other way..."

"So we are proud to join..."

"POTTER'S ARMY," they chorused, and at that many of the Gryffindors began clapping in agreement – soon enough, most of them, aside from a few they didn't know had joined in. The twins quickly jumped up. "Who was it that fought a dragon?"

"Potter!" the group answered.

"Who defeated You-Know-Who?"

"Potter!"

"Who's better than Hermione at Defense Against the Dark Arts?"  
"Potter!"  
The twins turned to him sombrely as Harry gave them an amused glance. "Well little Harry..."

"Your army has spoken."

Harry shrugged, turning to Ron who shrugged as well. "It's your show mate, fits well enough."

Hermione simply gave a small smile. "You are the natural leader here."

Harry stood up. "Very well... by an overwhelming majority, I reluctantly accept the title of 'Potter's Army' for the club!" And all, bar a few, cheered as Hermione wrote up POTTER'S ARMY as the title of the parchment, and proudly underneath it Harry, Hermione and Ron signed their names.

As the group began lining up, Harry grinned. It looked like he had his supporters.

-IM x HP-

"SAM, have you finished your scan of the basilisk hide?"

"_I have Harry. It is possible to make a similar molecular alignment in a composite shell – however with the equipment at current it is not possible."_

Harry glanced towards the rest of his unfinished lab. He had set it all up in the Chamber of Secrets, and though with the additional equipment he could do even more than what he could in the trunk lab some of it was still packed into the crates and would take a while to set up. "We can rectify that later. What protection does it offer?"

"_The experiments I have run show it offers significant protection against spells and other weapons. However, to replicate the full protection in the suit would be highly impractical as the shells would be too heavy and too thick. Like most organic skins it is not indestructible, will eventually wear, and in fact has a slight weakness against piercing weapons and extreme weather conditions."_

"That wasn't what I saw when I used a saw to cut through it a while back."

"_That saw was never meant for cutting into something with a consistency significantly tougher than most conventional tank armour-plating, nor can it be considered a piercing weapon."_

"Uh-huh. So SAM, can we make our duplication of it better?"

"_I believe so Harry, though might I add it is theoretically impossible to duplicate organic molecular structure in armoured shells."_

"Whoever decided that clearly wasn't a wizard then." Harry frowned as he opened up his encrypted email to find a message from Karen. When he opened it, there were only two words: MAGIC CRYSTAL. "Hmm..."

"_JARVIS sent a batch of new files yesterday over our joint server. It appears to be designs for a highly complex armour weave consisting of a molecularly aligned matrix of crystallised metal, magnetised over other shell layers."_

"Not bad." Harry watched as SAM displayed a holographic screen above him with the relevant information. "Tony did all that? I thought he was still shagging Pepper." He scrolled through it, seriously impressed with what he saw. "That'll make the outer shell more pliable, but once it's set it'll be able to seriously take a beating. Can we throw in a refractory coating to withstand extreme heat and cold as well?"

"_That will increase production time."_

"Only by half an hour or so. Tell you what SAM, I'll cut some bigger chunks out of the basilisk, let's see if we can't incorporate them or duplicate them into the final armour weave."

"_My calculations show that there is enough basilisk hide in the outer skin for four sets of the proposed armour shells."_

"More than enough, for the moment anyway." Harry said, rubbing his chin in thought. "Magic crystals, huh?"

-IM x HP-

"Excellent, well done Mr. Potter!" Professor Flitwick squeaked as Harry demonstrated perfect control over the spell. "It seems you have inherited some of your mother's talent! Thirty points to Gryffindor!"

Hermione was glaring at him jealously, but Harry was positively bored as he performed the charm over and over again. If his math was right, and it always was, it would be just... about...

RING! RING! The bell sounded, and at that the students sighed in relief, packing their things.

"Remember to write a foot long essay on the benefits of this particular charm for tomorrow's lesson! If any of you need help with your research assignment, I'll be in my office tomorrow evening!"

"What is it Harry?" Hermione frowned as she finished picking up her things.

"It's okay, I just need to ask Professor Flitwick about something," Harry answered.

"About..." she shut her mouth quickly when he gave her a stern look. "Oh. Right."

"It's fine, you didn't know that time."

As Hermione walked out, dragging Ron by the arm, Harry waited until there was no one else in the class before walking towards the Professor.

"Ah, Mr. Potter! Is there something I can do for you? Is it a question about your assignment?"

"No sir, it's actually not relevant at all to charms," Harry professed honestly. "It's just something I came across in my readings which I'm quite baffled about."

"Oh? Well I'll attempt to help in any way I can!"

"It's about magic crystals."

"Ah, magical crystals!" Flitwick beamed as he went over to his desk, flicking his wand and levitating the purest, most amazing gemstone Harry had ever seen. "Here."

As Harry gently plucked it out of the air, he watched in amazement as it lit up with a glowing internal flame on contact with his fingers.

"My uncle, Adamus Flitwick gave that to me as a gift many years ago from his extensive travels across the globe. You see, magical crystals grow in natural, magically saturated environments. Many, many centuries ago, during the time of Merlin, the Earth was so saturated in magic that magical crystals grew in great quantities. They often grow in caves or dark areas, and possess many properties. That simple crystal you hold in your hand, for example, takes in body heat."  
"Body heat? So it doesn't use my magic at all?"

"Ah, you see, crystals have their own, special, internal magic due to growing in magical environments, and under certain environments, gain certain properties. Many rare crystals were prized by wizards for their power and potential, and Merlin himself, it is said, had the most powerful crystal of them all, used for his staff." Flitwick sighed as Harry gave him back the crystal. "But in recent years magical crystals have declined, to the point that they are near impossible to find. My uncle has devoted himself to the study of crystals, and found that now they grow only in the furthest, most exotic corners of the Earth."

"What about propagating them artificially sir?" Harry asked quizzically. "Surely in such a magical environment like Hogwarts..."

"Many have tried and failed, unfortunately," Flitwick sighed. "The conditions which these crystals grow under are very, very specific. A wizard would need to spend weeks awake just to adjust the conditions perfectly for them to grow." The charms professor, paused, and reached into his drawer, pulling out a slim volume. "If you are interested, however, my uncle has written a book on magical crystals. He has compiled all the most relevant and useful information, as there are many mixed stories about crystals and how they are found. Their rareness means that they fetch quite a price, and many crystal hunters fail – though by spreading stories, they ensure that no one else succeeds."  
Harry accepted the book reverently. "Thank you sir, I'll give it back as soon as I've finished reading and taking notes from it."

"Very good... and Mr. Potter?" Harry paused, listening to his teacher. "Though it is understandable to be curious, the time of magical crystals is passed. They signalled generations of a global world of magic, but now, those that are left are not worth the time and effort to chase."

"Thank you Professor, I'll keep that in mind." Harry said, moving off to catch up with Hermione and Ron.

"What was that about?" Ron asked.

"Nothing, just a question about charms," Harry replied as they began walking towards the Common Room. "Any luck finding a place to practice?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, not even close. Not on the scale we need."

The gears in Harry's mind began clicking as he paced through the options. "We can't use an empty classroom, too easy to be found out and too small anyway. A secret corridor? No way there would be enough room. We can't ask the teachers; Dumbledore is certainly out of the question about now... I'll see if I can get into contact with any of the house elves..."

-IM x HP-

**Several days later**

"The house elves call it the 'Come and Go Room', Harry explained to his astonished friends as they walked into the door that suddenly appeared. "Or the Room of Requirement. It's a Room that configures itself based on the user's needs, and since we need a Room that can teach people how to fight..."

"This is amazing!" Hermione enthused, intending to leap onto a couch and pull a book from the shelf – however she gaped as the bookcase suddenly vanished.

"We're a 'practical' club," Harry explained when Hermione shot him a venomous look. "Guess what that means?"

Students soon began pouring in, amazed at the large and complex practise room Harry had set up for them. Thanks to his mental prowess he had envisaged it perfectly in his mind and arranged it precisely as he desired – and thanks to the Room's magical abilities, it had come to reality. _Tony would kill to have a pad like this. _Once he saw that everyone had arrived, Harry stepped up onto the raised platform that he also had the foresight to create, waiting until the chatter died down before clearing his throat and beginning.

"Right, thank you all for coming. We'll be meeting regularly in this Room, so keep your charmed Galleon on you at all times. The first thing that I'd like to emphasise is that _we are all in this together_. You need me, I need you. Death Eaters hunt in packs. They don't travel alone, and you should too. Stick together, and you'll be fine. Well, unless you're me of course." He waited until the laughs had died down before continuing. "You are all going to be pushed hard. I recommend that you dress in muggle clothing and not those bulky robes, because mark my words you will all be sweating at the end of this. A little exercise can go a long way." Someone raised a hand. "Yes, Susan?"  
"I thought you would be teaching us how to use magic?"

"I said I would be teaching you how to defend yourselves and fight off Death Eaters." Harry answered curtly. "It's a package deal. You're all young and healthy! Many of Voldemort's..." the winces were really getting old by now, "Inner Circle are old. They may be strong magically but physically most are past their prime. Use that to your advantage – fast spell-casting and constantly moving can go a long way." He nodded towards Hermione, who stepped up onto the other side of the raised platform. "Each of the practice duelling platforms have been specially designed. Whenever you cast a spell, a window based on new muggle holographic technology will appear, indicating speed, power, wand movements, incantation, and giving an overall rating." To give an example, he raised his wand, and snapped it forward. _"Expelliarmus," _he intoned quietly.

As expected, a wand went flying his direction, and he caught it smoothly. Suddenly, a glowing blue window appeared, showing information, his stance, posture, and giving a blazing '10'.

There were many murmurs at this – some, like Neville, looked at him in absolute awe.

"There are three spells I expect you to become familiar with this lesson. _Stupefy, Expelliarmus, _and _Protego._ The three building blocks of modern duelling, and ones that I expect you to be very familiar with. So familiar with in fact..." without warning, he snapped his wand out, and stunned his friend to the gasps of astonishment from the students. "That it's like breathing to you."

The first lesson would also be the toughest, and what followed was brutal though extremely enjoyable. Harry was adamant that they push themselves as hard as they could, and with his encouragement they did so over the next hour and more. With his help and corrections, measly 3s and even 2s on occasion soon turned to 5, and eventually to 6, and for some of the older students 7s and even 8s.

"It is the intent of the user that determines the spell. Ultimately, wand movements are irrelevant," Harry explained to his enraptured listeners as he talked about quiet and non-verbal casting. "Spells are a manifestation of the _will_! You must _want_ to stun, or disarm, or shield yourself!"

And soon enough, even those slow on the take like Neville eventually managed to get it.

Harry wasn't finished however. With many of the students exhausted and tired, he refused to give them even an inch. "How exhausted do you think you'll be in an all-out war?" he demanded. "Absolutely tired out of your mind! But when you're engaged in a duel where a split second could cost you everything, you _can't_ afford to budge! You must keep pushing forward even when your brain is boiling and you're rocking unsteadily on your feet!"

With that rationale, everyone refused to give up. Harry had set up different target ranges – dummies which popped up randomly and fired paint if the user wasn't quick with their wand, and moving targets behind constantly changing obstacles.

As the lesson wrapped up, ultimately Harry was pleased with everyone's progress – though it wasn't much, it was there, and enough to be built upon.

"Harry," Hermione panted as she came up to him. "While this was a good lesson..." she took a moment to catch her breath, "it went on longer than I thought. How will we get back without being caught?"

"This is the Room of Requirements isn't it?" With a smirk, Harry turned to a wall, as several doorways materialised, each with their corresponding House symbols over them. The students began walking off to their Common Rooms for some much needed rest, and although Harry originally expected many would hate him after this, to his surprise many gave him compliments, pats on the back or handshakes. "Remember to practise your spell casting, the more you do it, the easier it gets! Hey Neville." He turned to the pudgy boy, whose face was shining with sweat. "What's up?"

"That was a really good lesson Harry," Neville enthused. "I never thought I could do all that."

Harry smiled. "It's a common technique sports instructors use. To really bring out the best in people you need to push them to their limits while encouraging them, instead of mollycoddling or taking them down."  
Neville returned the smile with a grin. "Thanks Harry... but I was just wondering..."

By this time Ron and Hermione had come back from talking with some of the students, and even Ginny had stayed behind out of curiosity, tailed quietly by Luna who found something on the ceiling extremely fascinating.

"Would you... you know, give me private lessons?" Neville asked weakly.

Harry frowned in confusion. "Why's that Nev?"

"Because, you know... I'm not as good as the rest of them..."

"You're just as good, if not better," Harry interrupted firmly. "The only reason I can see for you not achieving is a serious lack of self-confidence, and your wand."

"My wand?" Neville asked quizzically, pulling it out of his pocket. "But this was my dad's..."

"Exactly," Harry declared. "That wand was good for your dad, but it's not good for you. The wand chooses the wizard Neville. Nothing else will work as well. So I strongly suggest you get a new wand soon if you really want to live up to your full potential."

"But still... I'd feel better about it if you gave me extra lessons..."

Harry sighed. "If you really feel that badly about it, then I suppose..."  
"Hey mate, what about us?" Ron interrupted. "Why don't you give us any lessons?"

The teenage genius looked at him in confusion. "I didn't think you'd want your best mate to give you lessons..."

"Are you bloody serious?" Ron asked incredulously. "You killed a bloody basilisk to save my sister! You fought a resurrected You-Know-Who and escaped to tell the tale!"

For once, Hermione didn't correct his language as she looked at him firmly. "Come on Harry. You said it yourself, you need people just as good as you to fight by your side," she pleaded. "Who better to teach us than you?"

"If you're getting private lessons, then I'm in as well," Ginny declared. "With Luna."

Harry smiled at the weird girl, and to the amazement of the students her eyes came into focus as she smiled back.

"Wait, are you bonkers? I'm not letting my little sister take extra defence lessons!" Ron declared brashly.

"I'm just as capable as you, or do you want me to demonstrate what Bill's taught me?" Ginny questioned, raising her wand threateningly.

"Whoa, whoa, cool it everyone." Harry interrupted. "If you guys all want extra private lessons..." he rubbed his temples in exasperation, wondering how he got into this mess in the first place. "I guess it can be done, and you're a small enough group that I can really devote more time into each of you. But be warned, it's going to be a notch tougher than regular PA meetings. Make that several notches. And considering how tired you all look now... can you handle it?"

Neville nodded, eyes shining with determination. Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Luna all nodded their agreements as well.

"I can see why you're all Gryffindors... or should be," Harry hastily added as his eyes passed over Luna. "We'll begin tomorrow night."

-IM x HP-

"_Harry, I do not understand what you are doing."_

"You hardly ever do SAM," Harry panted as he hefted the final bar over his head, hooking it up to the chain he had drilled in. He pulled the wires out from them, and attached them to a terminal by a combination of technology know-how and DIY knowledge. "Come on, connect..." he muttered in annoyance as the screen continued to flash with CONNECTION NOT ESTABLISHED. Finally, he gave it a kick, and the screen flickered as it eventually flashed with CONNECTION ACTIVE. "Sometimes you have to do things the old fashioned way," Harry laughed as he stood up, and began yanking on the large electrical coil, stretching it over the length of the Chamber. "Okay, hit it SAM!"

There was a deep thrum as the electrical coil became charged with blue sparks of energy. It whirred around the coil, faster and faster until it illuminated the large tray, filled with soil, in luminescent shimmering light.

Harry frowned. "The output of power is too much." He pulled out a wrench, attaching it to the wheel on the side of the coil, his brain immediately recalling the precise instructions. Fifteen degree turn clockwise, push in half an inch, thirty degrees anticlockwise...

Eventually the coil hummed as it wound down, and the light stopped shimmering.

"_All readings green. You have successfully created an environment of focused, controlled magic."_

"Lock it up SAM," Harry ordered. With a hiss, plastic windows shot over the tray and a roof closed over it, locking the blue light bars in with it. Quickly he moved to the terminal, and rapidly began typing in commands. "Keep temperature and light variables constant. At exactly twelve o'clock tomorrow, halve the cycles per minute for an hour, and then began oscillating wavelength based on the resonance the soil exhibits, indicating the growth of the crystals," Harry stated. "Keep saturation at optimum levels for maximum growth and magical development."

"_Saturation levels adjusted. Estimated time of development... 2 months, 16 hours, 12 minutes."_

"Not bad," Harry commented. "That's faster than I expected, and by that time the rest will be coming along nicely." His attention drifted as he turned to watch the video screens of the Department of Mysteries. A quick flick of a button switched the screens to thermal, and he watched as the guard underneath Invisibility Cloak fidgeted, most likely since it was towards the end of their shift.

Dumbledore, Dumbledore, what the hell are you up to?

"SAM, open up the new encrypted files on nanotechnology," Harry said, deciding not to give it any more thought. Whatever happened, he could deal with it.

-IM x HP-

"Potter! Ten points from Gryffindor for your tardiness and another twenty for sleeping..." Snape wrinkled his nose in disgust as the bane of his existence snorted, and continued to sleep. "POTTER!"

Many of the Gryffindors began sniggering at the teenager's blatant disregard for the Potions teacher, that is, until he slapped him over the head with a book.

"Ouch, that's becoming a habit..." Harry looked up tiredly to see a very familiar hooked nose. "Hi Snape."

"Another ten points off Gryffindor, it is Professor Snape, and you will treat me with the proper decorum and respect," he sneered.

At that, Harry burst out laughing. "Are you serious? Decorum? Respect? You? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" He continued laughing for another minute, during which every student in the class stared at him like he was completely insane.

"Potter!" Snape thundered. "Thirty points from Gryffindor for mocking a teacher and detention this Friday!"

Harry stared at him for a moment before responding succinctly. "Bite me."

"FIFTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" Snape roared, making to grab his arm but failing as Harry had jumped away.

"Sorry, Snape, don't want to get grease on my robes," Harry said with a smirk, to the horror of Hermione and wonderment of every other Gryffindor and even some Slytherins. "You know how badly it stains; this fabric wasn't exactly made to get greased..."

Snape gritted his teeth – it was obvious to everyone that he was seriously reaching boiling point! "Potter, I'll..."

"Start taking a bath? You do that. While you're at it, use some shampoo, I know the name of a really good brand..." Surreptitiously, Harry had begun taking his wand from his pocket. "In the meantime, I might go to lunch early..."

He walked off – as soon as he turned his back to Snape, he quickly ducked, and as expected a spell went flying over his head – Harry had snapped off a disarming curse as soon as he ducked, and evidently he had caught Snape completely by surprise as a wand went flying his way, a wand he caught in his hand smoothly for a perfect example of the curse.

The students gaped at him in astonishment as he raised Snape's wand like some sort of trophy, and he could clearly hear Ron breathing "Wicked!" behind him. The Professor didn't have a sneer as he too, for the moment, instead of schooling his face into his normally neutral look or sneer was amazed.

Harry had guessed from the very moment he turned his back Snape would curse him, and knew that he didn't have a chance in hell if it got into a proper duel – he hated the man for his personality, not his magical ability. So Harry did one better, and timed it so perfectly that as Snape was just about to fire his curse Harry had ducked and already fired his own spell – the man was too conceited to even consider he could evade and fight back.

The moment passed as Snape's face quickly schooled into his trademark sneer. "Potter, return my wand."

Harry was blunt. "No."

"Give me my wand Potter!"

Harry whistled as he looked at Snape's wand. "Not bad. Not hard to think this particular wand's user has a pathological need for the dark arts, considering the spell you just threw at me was undeniably a dark curse." His eyes hardened as he returned Snape's glare, confident in his neural isolator's ability to throw off mental intrusions – as expected, Snape winced when he clearly tried to enter the young Potter's mind. "I wonder what dear Professor Umbridge would think of this... Using dark curses on students? Undeniably there would be... dire consequences." Harry smiled sweetly. "And you know how little power Dumbledore has at the moment..." for the first time in his Hogwarts career, Harry saw fear flash across Snape's eyes. He glanced towards Neville, who had noticed it as well, and didn't cower as he straightened up, watching the confrontation.

"What is it you want, Potter?" Snape finally demanded.

"Firstly, you are going to return all the points you just took from me this lesson. Every single one. You are going to cancel that detention, and I am exempted from Potions the rest of this term. Quite frankly, you've been _inhibiting_ my ability to learn, and I'm confident I can achieve the required grades on my own." He quickly raised a hand to silence whatever retort the Potions teacher had. "Of course... this particular wand might just make its way into Ministry hands... I hear that they have developed ways of viewing its _entire_ history of spells..."

"Done!" Snape growled, barely restraining his anger, raising his hand. "My wand."

"I thought you said there would be no foolish wand waving here," Harry stated as he pocketed it and walked off. "Don't worry, you'll get it back soon enough... once I see those points are returned..."


	9. Chapter 9

"Headmaster, I demand you discipline that arrogant brat! He needs to be taught a lesson!" Snape barked, rage in his dark eyes.

"Severus!" McGonagall warned. "It is that attitude which allowed you to be provoked in the first place! And Albus, by Merlin if you take his side this time..."  
"As the Headmaster, I do not take sides," Dumbledore interrupted gently, though he did not notice the slight looks of amusement at that comment coming from most of the teachers who were well aware of these frequent Gryffindor/Slytherin arguments. "However I must reprimand you for your actions Severus. To attempt to attack a student..."

"Is tantamount to probation or suspension!" McGonagall snapped. "And worse, from what I'm hearing I highly doubt that he threw a tickling jinx!"

"Is no one taking into account the fact that the brat was asking for it?" the Potions teacher growled. "He was pushing me; he knew full-well what would happen..."

"That does not justify attacking a child; with a dark curse no less! We are teachers, Severus, we are meant to be ABOVE petty grudges and provocations!"

"And are you suggesting that I'm not?" Snape asked incredulously.

"Both of you calm down this instant!" Dumbledore stated firmly. "Severus, if Mr. Potter decides to press charges I cannot protect you. However I would strongly recommend that you stay out of his way from now on, for _both_ our sakes. If Minister Fudge finds out that a Hogwarts teacher attacked a student with a dark curse it will be both our jobs."

McGonagall looked at him like he was insane. "Surely you must not be joking Albus! A teacher attacked a student, with a dark curse no less, and you are worried only about your job?"

"As we speak, Dolores is possibly in communication with the Minister, in an attempt to allow her more power and control over this school. We cannot afford any slip-ups now... that especially goes for you Severus."

The Potions teacher nodded sourly.

Dumbledore seemed to lose his serious face in an instant as soon as he popped a lemon drop. "Since we are on the topic of Mr. Potter, how goes his progress?"

McGonagall rolled her eyes – only Dumbledore could attempt to do a complete turnover of topic.

It was Flitwick who spoke up first. "He is excelling in charms! Though his talent was always obvious, it was not immediately so and there is no doubt this year that he rather extraordinary at charms, just as gifted as his mother I would say!"

The Transfiguration teacher also allowed a rare smile to grace her lips. "I agree with Filius' assessment. Though he was reasonably talented beforehand, this year has seen a remarkable improvement in his skills, both practical and theoretical. His essay-writing is concise and logical, but it is his Transfiguration which really shines through. In fact, though Miss Granger still exceeds his theoretical ability his practical ability vastly outmatches her."

Snape however curled his lips into his trademark sneer. "Your fondness for the boy blinds you to his faults. He is a mediocre student with no more ability than a squib, and as always his Potions are dismal."

McGonagall however was prepared for such a comment and was quick with a comeback. "Severus, has he returned your wand to you at all yet?"

Many of the teachers had to cough to hide their chuckles. The story that Harry Potter had not only defended himself, but actually disarmed Severus Snape and kept his wand as a trophy had spread like wildfire among the students by the end of the day everyone in the school knew about it, and naturally the teachers also knew. McGonagall also had decided not to investigate the rumour that Harry kept the wand on a plaque in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Indeed, we have seen a great change in Mr Potter, one for the better." Though he said that, Dumbledore was internally rather worried. He wanted to confront Harry on the issue, especially his summer wanderings, but was worried due to his active connection with Voldemort that his presence could trigger it and Tom would gain a glimpse of the Order's plans once he became aware of such a link. Undoubtedly the boy was suffering without his guidance, but it was all for the greater good. Tom could not be allowed to learn of that link; otherwise the consequences could be dire. "I have even heard that Mr Potter has performed non-verbal magic on numerous occasions."

Many of his teachers murmured at that – non-verbal magic was not taught until Sixth year, and to use it as frequently as Harry did indicated prodigious talent.

Dumbledore sighed as the staff meeting broke up – though he desperately needed to keep Harry in check, he was confident his friends would do that for him. Any deviation in the scenarios he had predicted could be destructive, and although sacrifices were inevitable, they were better than the alternative of going into the unknown.

-IM x HP-

"Keep your focus while you stay moving... good! Stay on your toes, keep your opponent off-guard! Vary your use of spells!" Harry shouted, as he rapidly evaded or deflected spells thrown at him by Neville in their mock duel. "Don't let up! Keep your balance!" Quickly Harry snapped off a disarming curse, which whistled through the air as Neville narrowly deflected it and fired one of his own.

On the sidelines, Hermione, Ginny Luna and Ron watched in amazement as the normally shy boy leapt, spun and ducked, constantly firing spells as he did so. They were all drenched in sweat, panting from the hard work out they had undergone today.

"Bloody hell, they've been at it for ages!" Ron muttered in between breaths. "I've never seen Nev like this before!"

"He's really come into his own," Hermione agreed as she watched the duel. "It's been an eventful month."

With Harry's encouragement, the members of his little club improved at a rapid rate, however those privileged to his extra lessons excelled. Neville especially had changed, with Harry and co's encouragement and self-belief it went a long way towards improving the boy, who was pushing himself to the very limits to keep up with Harry now.

"Okay, that's enough for today, Nev," Harry said as the pair lowered their wands. Though he was only in a light sweat Neville was sweating profusely as it dripped down his forehead and around his cheeks. "Hermione, can you look in that small bag I brought with me?"

Hermione did so, and found several silver bottles.

"Bring Neville and me one each and you can all have the rest," he said as he received one gratefully.

"W-What is this?" Neville frowned as he popped it open, to see a thick chocolate liquid.

"It's a workout shake, I used to drink these all the time in the summer when I had been working hard. They give you a quick boost in energy, plus have some supplements like protein. Drink it, they're just like chocolate shakes." And with that, Harry popped his and began sculling it.

Neville and the others followed his lead and also began drinking it, finding it surprisingly sweet. Harry walked off to the sidelines where the others were and Neville followed him.

Once they had taken a few moments to catch their breath, Harry turned to Neville first. "You're doing really good Nev. Wand speed is quick, incantations are quiet and you're much better focused and moving all the time. Remember to stay aware of your surroundings in case someone decides to get tricky and throw a spell at you from behind. Don't be afraid to be a little more inventive and use more variety in your spellwork. Some of your spells lack some punch, but don't look disappointed, I expect it's because of your inadequate wand. That wand isn't right for you Nev, never has been. To be honest I'm hoping that you could get another one as soon as possible since it's inhibiting your real abilities."

Neville flushed at the praise. "I don't know, my Gran..."

"Would want this. To be honest, what's stopping us from going tomorrow?"

"Are you serious?" Hermione demanded incredulously. "We could get expelled if we were caught!"

"If. That's a very, very big if. We won't get caught. Wanna come as well? You guys have all done well, you could use a vacation."

"We'll only be out for the day..."

"A one-day vacation, still better than none. Come on! Where's your Gryffindor spirit? That goes for you as well Luna since you should've been in Gryffindor." Harry added. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

Although Hermione still looked stubborn, when the others agreed, she eventually caved in to their demands, though naturally still didn't think it was a good idea.

"It's agreed then," Harry said with a grin. "We'll meet up next Hogsmeade trip, after that then you'll have to trust me."

-IM x HP-

Pulling on a set of gloves, Harry gently plucked out the crystal formation. He held it to the light, and watched in awe as it perfectly reflected it at symmetrical angles. "Beautiful..." he set it down in a machine, and watched as several lasers activated, cutting down on the unnecessary pieces until it became a palm-sized, pure white gemstone.

"_Checking wavelength signature. The crystal should be an acceptable power conversion unit."_

"Good..." Harry placed the gemstone on top of the modified Arc Reactor, as several small metallic latches automatically clicked into place. As soon as it connected with the Arc Reactor, the crystal too began to glow with an eerie internal blue light.

"_The modified reactor has accepted the crystal. If you will place the Reactor on top of the holographic projector, I can begin running tests." _

"Sweet." Harry did so, and seated himself at his terminal. "Activate the caller system SAM, dial Karen." He watched as the screen began to glow, a holographic line flying across the map of the globe until it connected with Malibu California – CONNECTION ESTABLISHED confirmed this.

"Hi Harry! How's Hogwarts?" Karen's sultry voice was a refreshing jolt to his system – it had been a while since he had heard her speak.

"Hey Karen, not bad. I'm just calling you to say thanks for the advice on the crystal, the gemstone's working perfectly so far."

"No problem baby, I read the term in a History of Magic book and it seemed like a good call to tell you... so I did!"

Harry laughed. He definitely missed her chirpiness. "Well thanks, you've been a big help."

"It's no problem. I miss you though..."

"I miss you too. Probably not the best idea to get together before I went, no?"

"Probably not, but don't worry... we have plenty of time to make that up at Christmas..."

At that point, Harry was glad Karen couldn't see his blush. "D-Don't worry, we will. Sorry to cut this call short, but I have to get back to work..."

"Boys and their toys," Karen teased. "Don't worry, I understand. Hey listen, I've just finished another batch of Arithmancy files. It's more than enough for the final version of your new Iron Man operating system."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Already?"

"The raw data I've compiled is a comprehensive list of over 25, 000 spells and rituals. I'd say that's more than enough, don't you think? I'm sending it all over now."

"That's fantastic!" Harry enthused. "Yeah, that's more than enough! Thanks so much for all this Karen!"  
"Hey, it's my job."

"To be my assistant or to make your boyfriend happy?"

Her laughter was light, like the tinkle of silver bells. "Not bad. Bye love!"

"Bye!"

As soon as she went offline, Harry checked his encrypted mail, and sure enough, there was a new, massive document. At this rate, he would finish the final version of his software by the end of the week, a pleasing outcome considering how long he had been working on it.

-IM x HP-

"Come on, it's just down this hill," Harry explained as the small group walked through Hogsmeade village.

"Where are we going?" Hermione frowned, lagging at the back of the group. Her hesitation was immediately obvious to everyone. "And how exactly are we going to get to Diagon Alley?"

"It's simple enough," Harry said as he walked towards the outskirts of the village. At this distance from the centre, much of the area had been obscured by light bush and forest, though there were still a few wizard homes around for people who evidently liked nature. "We hitch a ride... ah." He waved his wand, and everyone watched in astonishment as a small shack appeared. "Just some notice-me-not wards on it, come in."

As with a wizard tent, the interior was vastly larger than the exterior, and it appeared to be a garage, with a fairly large bulk underneath a piece of cloth.

"Harry, what is that?" Neville asked.

The teenage genius grinned as he pulled the cloth off, to reveal a shining, almost new red and gold vintage sports car. "Though I had the foresight to get a four-seater, that's still not enough – Ginny and Luna, can you sort of... share a seat?"

They glanced at each other before Ginny spoke. "I think we can do that."

"Blimey mate, this is awesome!" Ron gaped, running his hand down the sleek surface. "You own this?"

"I have two of them, a two-seat model and the one you see here," Harry explained. "I own this shack as well, took some renovation to get to this point but it's fine now."

"You... have a car?" Hermione demanded. "And you didn't even think to tell one of us?" she withered under his warning glance.

"It's not a big deal. Come on, let's go, Nev, you take the front seat." Harry grinned as he pulled the keys out of his pocket – once the group was all seated, he fired up the engines and sighed as it gave a mighty roar, causing Hermione to jump. "Ah, that's music to my ears. Well, here we go!"

At a speed deeply unsettling to Hermione, the car accelerated out of the shack, gaining speed until it flew into the air, cloaked by Notice-me-Not charms and all other manner of spells and illusions – a shame really, he was eager to show it off.

"You know, Nev, you're a damn good wizard," Harry said as they flew through the air. "Don't get embarrassed, just hear me out. You're improving quickly, you're talented, once we get you whipped up into shape you'll be a force to be reckoned with. Everyone tells you your problem is self-confidence and anxiety, and I'm not going to repeat it."  
"B-But I could never be as brave as you, Harry," Neville said despondently. "You stood up to Snape. You actually stood up to him, and you disarmed him no less! I could never do that..."

"You could, Neville. It's not anxiety. It's not self-confidence. It's motivation. Once you fix your mind on something you do it. I think we all saw that this past month during the PA and also in these extra lessons. That's what you need, Neville. A soldier isn't called a coward for being afraid, he's called a coward for running away from battle. A soldier who fights despite his fear, however... they're hailed as heroes."

Neville pondered his words quietly. "Do you ever get afraid, Harry?"

Harry simply smiled as he continued to drive.

Soon enough, the group were walking happily through Diagon Alley, marvelling at how quiet it was when there weren't students with their families walking up and down the streets for their school supplies. The atmosphere seemed more to suit a sleepy village, and as the group broke up, promising to meet at Fortescue's in half an hour, none of them, even Hermione, couldn't help but feel a relative sense of freedom. Here they were, far away from Hogwarts for all its rules, regulations, and teachers. They couldn't help but feel free. They couldn't help but feel as if they were adults, responsible only for themselves and their friends.

And so, half an hour later, Neville was the proud owner of a new wand. He turned it over in his hands fondly while the rest of them ate delicious vanilla sundaes with chocolate fudge and strawberries, courtesy of Harry – though Luna decide, in her eccentric way to have every flavour ice cream put in her sundae.

"You know, this is kind of nice, isn't it?" Hermione said, more relaxed than Harry or Ron had ever seen her. "To be far away from everything. Umbridge, the Ministry… teachers…"

"Who are you and what have you done with Hermione?" Ron joked to earn himself an acid look. "Seriously, the Hermione we know wouldn't be this excited about being away from school."

"That was before everything happened," she shot back.

"Hey, that's Lucius Malfoy!" Neville stated – the group turned to where he was facing to see that, indeed, it was Malfoy, who glanced around worriedly before disappearing into Knockturn Alley.

"Not very subtle about trying to hide something is he?" Ron snorted as he finished off the last strawberry from his sundae.

Ginny however glared at his figure as it disappeared into Knockturn Alley, unconsciously slipping her hand into her pocket, gripping her wand tightly. As she felt its reassuring weight, she burst out of her seat, and began running off.

"Ginny! Wait!" Harry shouted, but to no avail, she ignored all their warnings. "Damn it!"

"Bloody hell, she's not normally like this!" Ron gaped as they stood out of their seats.

"Considering he's the one that made her first year a misery I wouldn't be surprised… Neville!" Harry cried as the larger boy also began running off. "Come on, let's go!"

"Harry, there's no way Malfoy could've missed us," Hermione hissed. "It's probably a trap!"

"Then let's spring it," Harry stated, hefting up his wand and also running off, followed hotly by the rest of them. Truthfully he had already known it was most likely a trap from the very moment he saw Lucius skulking in the shadows, staring at Neville and him as they exited Ollivander's, and had no intention of playing their game, perfectly pleased to ignore him completely – until now that is.

Sprinting through until they hit Knockturn Alley, Harry and co navigated the streets until they found Ginny and Neville, standing there, frozen.

"Neville!" Harry ran beside them, followed by the others. "What…" then he saw them – four Death Eaters, fully garbed.

"We're trapped," Ron stated in horror as he spun around, only to see the streets being blocked off by other Death Eaters. "And outnumbered!"

"A very astute observation, Weasley," a voice Harry knew to be Lucius' drawled.

The man stepped out of the ranks, clothed too in Death Eater garb as he took off his mask. "Imagine my surprise when none other than Harry Potter and his friends simply fell… into my lap. Shouldn't you all be in school, studying? Taking tests? Practising magic?"

Harry however returned his sneer. "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, considering it was in school when you started kissing the hem of Voldemort's robes? I thought Malfoys bowed to no one?"

"Do not speak his name!" Malfoy growled, raising his wand.

"Hit a soft spot there did I?" Harry taunted. "I imagine it must have been quite painful for you, when you tried to return to your master's inner circle… after all, I don't think they take too kindly to those who are too weak to stand for what they believe in…"

"SILENCE!" Lucius barked. "You are outnumbered Potter, vastly more than you'd expect. I have pulled every favour I can in the past half an hour to make Knockturn Alley turn a blind eye… it is just us. No one will know. No one will weep when Dumbledore's golden boy and his pathetic muggle-loving friends… vanish."

Harry smirked. "Good. Wouldn't want everyone to see you getting your asses kicked by a fifteen year old."

"You insolent brat! Even if you were all expert duellers, there is no possibility of you returning alive! I will kill all you muggle-lovers, and the Dark Lord will reward me greatly!"

Harry's lightning quick mind had been analysing the situation while they had been talking. He didn't recognise the build of some of these Death Eaters; they were most likely new recruits of the army Voldemort was building in secret. Malfoy had implied there were more than it seemed, and he was not prepared to risk any of their lives.

"Well, Potter? Any last words?" Lucius sneered.

Harry simply smirked as he ripped off his backpack, tearing away the cloth to reveal a sleek blue case, and activated it. He stepped into it, and grabbed the handles, slamming it onto his chest as the case gave a mechanical whir, and blue and silver plates began rapidly assembling around him. A helmet clicked into place around his face as his eye slits started to glow white and his Arc Reactor pulsed with blue energy.

He closed his fingers into fists, mechanical joints clicking as he contemplated his enemy through an impassive metallic face.

Ron gave a squawk. "Blimey!"

Then he sprang into action.

Quickly he fired off his boot repulsors, slamming through Lucius and smashing down the wall of Death Eaters, punching and kicking his way through as spells whizzed past him, some catching him but meeting only armour as he spun around and powered up his repulsors, firing off several beams.

"Go!" Neville shouted as his friends began moving, putting their training into effect as they fired off spells, dodging, evading and constantly staying on the move.

Harry saw that Lucius wasn't bluffing as he quickly scanned his environment for more threats before isolating his targets, firing off more repulsor blasts to cover his movements as he tackled into another group of Death Eaters, taking them down – they were indeed greatly outnumbered, but he was the big target and everybody would be moving for him.

In the chaos, the others performed admirably, stunning, disarming and knocking out Death Eaters with chains of multiple spells as he had taught them, never staying in one place, keeping their opponents on their toes – they switched between passive and aggressive strategies effortlessly.

Neville and Ginny panted heavily as they lowered their wands, having found back-to-back for the course of the skirmish. Though these were undoubtedly new Death Eaters they were young and enthusiastic, enough to cause any wizard trouble in numbers.

Harry clanked towards his friends, still kitted out in his Iron Man armour, which had sustained numerous blows – many cutting curses had found their mark, slashing straight through his armour to find skin, whilst several concussive curses had knocked his torso and joints out of shape, and even managed to slightly crack his faceplate as it retracted. "Well…"

Neville looked behind him, to see large piles of bodies stack against each other. He knew that even as a combined group there was no way they could have fought through such a number, and actually felt his face flush slightly in shame when he compared the one or two Death Eaters he disabled..

Ginny swallowed heavily. "H-How come there were so many…"

"Lucius. He's been raising an army of Death Eaters on behalf of Voldemort," Harry stated grimly as he raised his hand, flexing his fingers which could be partially seen through the chipped armour. "We were undoubtedly unlucky to stumble into some of his new recruits." He pressed a button on his wrist as a small probe slid out of his shoulder. "Close your eyes."

There was a searing flash – the only remotely magical device on his Mark V Variant armour, a mechanical modification of the Obliviation curse as beams of light scattered out, hitting the unconscious Death Eaters' heads, wiping the last half an hour from their memories.

His friends stepped up, looking him up and down, dressed in his Iron Man armour.

"So that's why you didn't have a Wrackspurt infestation," Luna stated dreamily.

Harry smiled. "No. I guess I have a lot of explaining to do…" he grunted as he staggered slightly.

"Harry!" Hermione and Ginny came to his aid, holding him up by their shoulders.

"Come on, we need to get back to my car." He said weakly.

-IM x HP-

"It's here," Harry stated as he pulled himself off of Ginny and Hermione, taking off the Invisibility Cloak.

Ginny looked around, pale. "T-The Chamber…"

"_Open," _he hissed, as the walls parted – but it only did so to reveal a sleek white door. Harry stepped forward, and a green laser scanned his form as the door hissed open to reveal an elevator.

The group came down, looking around in astonishment – Harry had cleaned up the Chamber as best as he could, the basilisk' corpse long since dissected and stored in various compartments. It now looked sleek, modern, and with its various computers and machines, distinctly muggle.

Harry stumbled into his seat as he pressed a button, letting the armour retract back into its original form as holographic displays surrounded him. "SAM, open the medical compartment."

"_Understood, Harry."_ The group jumped at that pronouncement as a large compartment of medical supplies clicked out of his desk.

Hermione couldn't take her eyes off the Mark III armour in its display cabinet. "Y-You, you built an Iron Man suit…"

"I did… I built lots of Iron Man suits actually," Harry chuckled as he downed some painkillers and slid the case away, before rapidly typing in some commands. "SAM… activate Deletion Protocol."

"_Deletion Protocol activating."_

Silently, metal rods began to rise out of the floor as a high-pitched whirring filled the air – before anyone could say anything Harry had smiled. "Sorry, guys." He quickly shut his eyes as another searing flash filled the room, wiping away the last hour from their memories. Typing in some more commands, he placed his wand on the side of his head, pulling out a memory strand which he tipped into a port in the terminal.

"_Memory strand received, altering. Insertion Protocol activating."_

Another flash filled the room with beams of light, and all of his friends received a new memory to replace the blank spot in their minds.

"I can't have you learning about me yet," Harry said apologetically as he turned around, expecting to see them all unconscious.

"It looks like the wrackspurts have really filled their heads now."

Harry stumbled back. "L-Luna!"

The girl smiled at him dreamily before putting on a pair of chunky pink glasses, looking down at Neville's body. "Definitely wrackspurts, and it looks like there's quite an infestation in each of them."

"SAM? How did she…?"

"_Scanning – it appears that her unique neural patterns protected her from the effects of the Obliviation." _

"So is this why there aren't any nargles around your head?" Luna asked in wonderment as she stared at the Iron Man suit with wide, silvery eyes.

"_Harry, I strongly recommend…"_

"Mute. Luna, I…"

"Don't worry Harry. I won't tell anyone." She smiled dreamily. "But I hope you'll let me borrow one when daddy and I go hunting for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack in Sweden."

Harry massaged his temples, feeling a headache coming on. "Luna. I'm sorry, but that's not good enough, this is important, really important…"

As if a fog had lifted from her face, Luna suddenly became serious, her gaze hardening into something completely unlike the normally dreamy look. "My lips are sealed, Harry. I mean it."

"…Okay. Fine. I'll let it go, for now." Harry sighed, turning back to his terminal. "Do you mind…?"

"Not at all. _Mobilicorpus!_" Luna began floating Ginny away. "This may take a while though, even with the Nargles helping me."

"I'll configure the security system to give you temporary access." Watching her walk back into the elevator, Harry groaned, slouching back in his seat, and not just from his bruises. He had made a mistake, a bad, bad mistake that nearly cost him had he not taken the necessary precautions. He couldn't afford to let anyone know, it was bad enough Luna now knew, he couldn't imagine the pestering from Hermione if she knew. He had learnt his lesson, he needed to be more cautious in the future.

Nevertheless, he had to keep going. Someone had to save England after all.

-IM x HP-

"CRUCIO!"

Lucius screamed – the curse was worse, far worse than what he had to normally deal with, writhing in unbridled agony. Voldemort held it for a moment before releasing it.

"I need you at full strength to do my will – that is why you have gotten off so easily," Voldemort hissed, sitting back in his obsidian throne. "However, fail me once more and the consequences will be severe. How is it that you and a small army of fresh Death Eaters eager to please their master were able to be left for dead in Knockturn Alley of all places?"

"I-I do not know, my lord, one moment we were…"

"FOOL!" Voldemort snarled. "Your memory was clearly wiped! _Legilimens!"_ The Dark Lord burrowed through Malfoy's pitifully shielded mind, tossing aside memories until he found a thick, mental haze, indicative of an Obliviation. He pushed through it, grabbing hold of memory fragments until he found one that was vaguely comprehensible – a looming, dark jagged shape with glowing eyes. "Fascinating," he murmured, exiting Lucius' mind. "As for you, your incompetence nearly cost us a fresh batch of recruits, recruits who actually had an iota of importance, out of some sense of superiority when I specifically ordered you to be discreet. Now, leave me while I ponder a suitable punishment!"

The Dark Lord mused on this strange image as he sipped on some red wine. Whoever they were, or whatever they were, they were powerful enough to single-handedly take out a large group of albeit inexperienced though eager recruits. Was the old fool trying to obstruct him? If so, how did he know where to look? Whoever this was, Voldemort would have to increase his efforts to gain the Prophecy.

And nothing would stop him.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Most reviewers have been quick to jump on the fact that Harry let all those Death Eaters go – however, in his defence I would like to point out that he was badly wounded, and in slight shock. He needed to make a quick getaway in case someone came, and not to mention they were out of school, meaning they could have gotten into trouble. Harry was under-equipped to handle secretly giving the Death Eaters over to Aurors, his armour was badly damaged and only meant to be used in emergencies, and to be perfectly frank nothing would've been done about it. Lucius would have got off scot-free, and the Death Eaters would have been let go due to magical Britain's ignorance and Fudge's paranoia. Finally, he had to deal with his friends now knowing his identity.

Furthermore, reviewers have questioned why he did not kill. I'd like to point out in Iron Man 2 Tony Stark was dressed in a similar model which folded out from a briefcase when he fought Vanko for the first time, but did not kill him. The answer is simple; the armour simply does not possess that much physical strength. It is strong enough to vastly increase strength, break bones, throw grown men through the air, but it simply does not have the brute force of the real deal.

-IM x HP-

"_Activating sensors. Recording started."_

"Good." Harry clanked into the view of the receptors, wearing the chassis of the new, magic-driven armour. "This is Flight Test one, SAM, keep fire extinguishers and sound suppressors handy, though I don't think I'll need them." He adjusted one of his gauntlets, which had been completely changed to accompany the presence of magic – there was a focussing crystal embedded in each of them with traces of phoenix feather within, similar to his boots as well. It had cost him a fortune to buy four phoenix feathers but he knew it would be eventually worth it.

Harry took a deep breath as he pulled the helmet over his head, activating flight mode. "We'll start off slow."

The suit gave a quiet hum as blue energy coursed down the tubes, into his gauntlets. Slowly, as he pushed more power into them, he started to float, higher and higher until he was hovering over the ground at several feet.

Harry began laughing. "This is amazing! It's responding to my every thought!" He did a few test turns before doing a slow lap around the Chamber. "No sluggishness, perfect manoeuvrability, impossibly responsive... no noise or emission gases..." he dropped down, pulling off his helmet as he took the chassis off, piece by piece. "The flight system is flawless. I'm excited to really put it through its paces. Are we ready to armour it up SAM?"

"_There are still terabytes of calculations to run Harry in order to cover all variables; it is far from an actual flight, not to mention finishing the scans of the actual power outage of the synthesised crystal."_

"Well run them and let me know," he stated firmly. "But first…" quickly Harry sat back at his terminal, rapidly typing in some commands. "I want you to patch into the Stark Industries Skyhawk Tactical Satellite."

"_Harry, that satellite is now defunct and does not broadcast any information to any military networks."_

"Exactly. Use the override codes from the Stark mainframe; I want you to do a complete system takeover, reactivate the satellite and take it off any military networks it's still connected to." Harry watched through his terminal as SAM began establishing an uplink, rapidly sending the files needed. A minute later, the icon for Stark Industries appeared as a console came up. Harry activated the satellite sensors, and watched as a satellite image of Britain filtered into his holographic projector.

"_Synchronisation complete, I now have complete control over the satellite and have isolated it from the network. It is now directly connected to our servers here." _

"Sync it with the servers back home, but do it on an encrypted ghost drive. Have you updated the satellite software with the necessary files?"

"_Yes, Harry. Activating Mage Vision protocols!"_

Harry watched with a grin as multi-coloured clusters now appeared all over Britain, colour coded depending on type of magic and strength of magic. "Gees, Magical Britain's bigger than I thought."

"_Mage Vision software is functioning perfectly. I have begun a connection process to your Iron Man suits." _

"Isolate the group we encountered in Knockturn Alley."

Harry watched as the satellite began zooming into Britain, further and further until it hovered over a cluster of bright spots, with a blinking coming from one of them.

"_The homing device you used is still active, Harry, however it is difficult to isolate the clusters."_

"That's due to the presence of heavy wards, I hadn't compensated for high levels of magical saturation," Harry mused thoughtfully. "It's clearly a Death Eater recruiting camp of some sort though. Isolate the magic signatures won't you SAM?" As the AI did so, he raised a hand over the holographic screen, pulling the clusters apart into different strands. "Residual traces of strong dark magic. There's no doubt it's them. I'll get the bastards for what they did yet, and this time… they play by my rules."

-IM x HP-

"Mass breakout from Azkaban," Hermione read aloud. "Numerous Death Eaters who supported You-Know-Who in the first war have escaped, including Bellatrix Lestrange, notorious for her torture of renowned Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom..."

"Enough, Hermione, we get the picture," Harry interrupted, very aware of Neville's steadily paling face.

The girl shot up, annoyed at being interrupted before her face softened when she realised who was beside them. "Oh... sorry Neville..."  
"It's fine," the boy said curtly before he upped and left.

"Look what you did now," Harry said, chastening her as he bit into another piece of toast. "Honestly Hermione for such a smart girl you'd think to be a little more considerate."

Said girl bristled at the comment before deflating, knowing he was right. Hermione shot an acid look at Ron when he sniggered, who quickly shut up. "I'm... sorry, Harry."

"It's fine," he said finishing up his toast, wincing slightly as he stood up.

"What's up mate?" Ron frowned. "You look like you've taken a nasty bludger hit!"

_Considering those blasting curses I took that description's apt. _"Uh... flying accident."

"Umbridge has banned Quidditch." Hermione stated flatly.

"Doesn't mean I can't fly," he shot back as he left.

Hermione stared at his retreating form thoughtfully, before sighing, her suspicion melting away in resignation. "Why do I bother?"

"Why do you bother what?" Ron asked between mouthfuls of food.

"For Merlin's sake!" Hermione stormed off, following her best friend and leaving her other best friend wondering what he had done now.

She sighed as she came across Harry in the corridor, sitting next to Neville, Ginny and Luna. "May I join you?"

He was laughing at something Luna said, before turning around. "Sure, why not?"

Hermione sat on Harry's other side quietly as they chatted amongst themselves, simply enjoying a little break before classes began.

"You know, I'm surprised you asked to join us," Harry commented in an off-handed manner.

Hermione turned to look up at him. "Why's that?"

"Because you haven't got a book out and you're not in the library."

Ginny and Neville glanced towards each other while Luna fiddled with one of the caps on her necklaces. They had both been aware of the friction from the very offset of the so-called golden trio's relationships, and it had often been a source of gossip amongst chatty Gryffindors. Although it was now clear who the real leader among the three was, some occasional, unresolved tension was always present, and with Harry's clear challenge he was bringing it up now.

She smiled. "Well, I'd just like to sit with my friends, that's all."

"And study?"

"It can wait. Spending time with friends is more important, isn't it?"

Harry looked at her, the unconscious approval clear. "You're right. It is more important. Don't you think guys?"

They chorused their approval, and as Ron came in, clueless as always, they headed for their classes together, splitting only at the last moment. It seemed, for the time being, that the golden trio was no more, and in its place was something bigger, something better.

None of the group, even Ginny, were extremely social people, preferring to stay inside their own fraternities. For some like Hermione, where tensions ran high between particular people who will go unnamed, it could be frustrating and sometimes lonely, and for some like Luna they were by themselves virtually all the time. Harry, now ever the perceptive one, had noticed this, and with the advent of private group lessons this had changed as their circle of friends expanded, something which he had been inching for in the weeks after the Death Eater attack.

Though they did not remembering it, they had all shared a traumatic event. Perhaps subconsciously, they had been brought together by this – nevertheless, Harry knew that it was better for all that they now had a closer, bigger group of friends (also making it easier to mask his frequent 'disappearances', as Hermione liked to call them, though she never pried).

Harry's maturity had changed things, for the better, in all of the people he closely associated with.

And he knew it would be sorely needed in the war to come.

-IM x HP-

"Now that the toad is High Inquisitor, I want you all to be careful," Harry warned to PA after yet another sweaty workout in the Room of Requirements. The students had long since adjusted to these sessions, and instead of their typical school robes most wore comfortable muggle clothing. "She may be a bitch but she's slimy and manipulative. Just like Snape. Don't forget the contract we signed. If one of you goes telling her... we'll know." He watched some of the more reluctant members fidgeting nervously at that pronouncement. "For the rest of you, don't forget to practise the new curse. Next week, we'll work on the Patronus charm a bit more, so read up on that, and keep the habit of having your wand in easy reach." He watched as the students left to go to their respective Common Rooms, while his friends remained behind. "So how was it?"

"Bloody good as usual mate," Ron complimented, wiping some sweat off his brow. "Nuts, but in a good kind of way."

"I can tell there's more to it than that," Harry commented, stepping down from the platform. "So what's up guys?"

Neville and the others shared a glance. "Harry, we've seen you practise," Ginny began. "We've noticed that the spells you're using... are a lot more advanced than the ones you're teaching us."

"Oh?" Harry raised an eyebrow. He had been expecting this for some time. "How so?"

"What you're using isn't in any books I've ever read," Hermione exclaimed. "We've seen you use everything from blasting hexes to cutting, piercing and shredding curses, even an organ hex once..."

"And when you transfigured that desk into glass shards, that was bloody brilliant," Ron added.

He sighed, gesturing for them to take a seat as chairs appeared around them. "That's because you're reading the wrong books. Some of those spells are from advanced duelling and battle tomes, most of which have been banned by the Ministry of Magic. I used them occasionally in our duels because I wanted you to be aware that Death Eaters will often know dark curses which you don't, and as such you need to be prepared to think on your feet."

"So you were using dark magic?" Ginny asked with a frown.

He laughed. "Don't give me that look, you know how paranoid the Ministry gets. They may be banned in Britain, but they aren't in any other countries."

"Wait, so you've..."

"I said I travelled, I didn't say where to," Harry stated cryptically. "So are there any other questions?"

"You didn't answer why you aren't teaching us those spells you learnt," Neville insisted.

"One: Your basics still aren't up to scratch. I'm laying the building blocks for you, giving you the skills you need to employ these curses effectively. What's the point of teaching you a powerful curse if you don't know when or where to use it? And two: none of you are ready for them."

"Ready for them?" Hermione demanded indignantly.

Harry's eyes bored into hers as she shrunk back, remembering her place. "Exactly, and this is growing into all-out war. Can any of you do it? Can any of you maim, dismember, cut, or spill the blood of living, breathing people? Are any of you ready to fight a war, not just because you think it's right, but because it's necessary? Are any of you prepared for the responsibility that comes from knowing these curses, and the readiness, to sacrifice your innocence in a fight to the death?"

At these electrifying words, many of them shrunk back, hesitantly.

He sighed. "I thought not. I've seen some pretty bad things. None of you are fully ready for the realities of a war. None of you are soldiers, and unlike many militaries, I'm not willing to train you to deaden your humanity to make you into one. Once I've taught you a bit more, fine, I'll begin teaching you those spells. You're all ready enough to disarm and defeat Death Eaters, but to really put them out of the fight?" Harry stood up, walking into the passage to their Common Room. "Have a think about it, but just remember that once you gaze into the abyss... the abyss gazes into you."

-IM x HP-

"How is the armour fabrication coming along?"

"_It is currently at 40.6 percent, stage three of seven. The process is taxing on my systems, and I have been forced to redirect power from emergency backup systems to my primary CPU."_

Harry watched in fascination as one of the shells, still red-hot from being melded, was dunked into a vat full of blue-green liquid, giving a hiss as it did so. "So the compound potion is working?"

The generators crackled as the liquid began bubbling, heated up by blue vents. _"It is working to specification, in combination with neutron and energy bombardment; I estimate the shell's structural integrity will increase by 126 percent, spell resistance, 643 percent." _

"Awesome," Harry grinned, setting the process back to AUTO on his terminal. "I'll leave it to you SAM, and use that new refractory coating that Tony sent to our server. Don't forget we're using the new armour configuration I specifically designed, not any of Tony's designs."

"_How could I Harry? You specifically requested it at every stage."_

"Uh-huh." He frowned as a beeping came from his terminal – typing in some commands, he watched as a holographic screen appeared showing the Department of Mysteries, with a very familiar snake... "Nagini!" he hissed, watching in horror as it attacked a very familiar form. "I need to get moving, SAM, open up the elevator!" He burst out of his seat, bolting towards the entrance.

Several minutes later Harry found himself being led to the Headmaster's office by a distressed-looking Professor McGonagall, and later after that he was sitting there, waiting while a concerned-looking Dumbledore stepped out of the fireplace, dusting some soot off his robes.

"Harry, listen to me, this is very important." He stated ominously, sitting in his large, upright chair that very much looked like a throne. "Did you see this happen through your scar?"

Having thought it through already, Harry nodded calmly. "I saw it... from the perspective of the snake."

Dumbledore sighed, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "It is as I thought, then. Your connection to Voldemort enables you to on occasion peer into his mind, and consequently the mind of his familiar Nagini since he can possess it. This is worse than I feared."  
Harry narrowed his gaze. _So he knew, and didn't tell me. Typical. _"How is it bad though sir?" he asked, innocently wording his question. "I mean, we'll be able to see into his plans…"

"Indeed, though that is not necessarily a good thing," Dumbledore mused, popping a lemon drop. _Figures he wouldn't say I had a revolving door to Voldemort in my brain. _"Too much knowledge, after all, can be a bad thing." _Was I really so idiotic that I'd believe everything he said? _"And I fear the connection may be more of a curse than a blessing, though this will be revealed in time. Tell me, Harry, what do you know of Occlumency?"

"I've never heard of it sir." He lied.

"I did not think so. It is the art of shielding your mind from outside, mental intrusions, and I believe that if you learn it then it will aid you greatly in managing this connection."  
"Will you be teaching me sir?"

"Alas, dear Harry, I have little time these days." _Now that's absolute bull._ "Fortunately however, Professor Snape is a master of the subject."

He shot up out of his seat indignantly. "No!"

The Headmaster looked at him, a strong warning in his crystal blue eyes. "Harry, I must ask that for your sake you put aside your childish grudge…"

"As you are so quick to remind me, I am a child," Harry countered coolly. All thoughts of playing it safe around the Headmaster had vanished from the very offset of his suggestion. No way in hell was he going to let that greasy git go poking around in his mind! "_Professor_ Snape however has no excuse."

"Harry, please…"

"I'll remotely consider it when _he_ apologises to _me_ for verbally attacking, belittling and insulting me and what my parents stood for from the very moment I set foot in his class. As that is unlikely, I believe our business is concluded for the evening, since as you have told me, Mr Weasley will be fine." With that, Harry left the Headmaster to his thoughts.

Dumbledore contemplated the boy once he left, sighing. "What am I going to do with you, Harry?" He _needed_ the boy's respect and loyalty should they defeat Voldemort. He had been grooming him to be the perfect replacement, as he knew the time drew near for his role in the chess game to be finished. It had taken him years of planning to get to this point, and without Harry, defeating Voldemort would be all but impossible.

Something had changed in Harry. That much was evident. Young Granger had not reported to him in weeks, and he was beginning to fear the worst. There was no possibility of Harry turning, that much was certain, but without faith in him his plans would be useless. He _needed _the boy's trust.

The consequences would be dire if Harry decided to do things on his own.

-IM x HP-

"JARVIS, are you there?"

"_Yes, sir, you are now within my broadcast proximity. What can I do for you?"_

"I need you to upload all relevant files on the project Tony developed for SHIELD to my HUD."

"_Sir, those files are classified for…"  
_"I know they are, damn it JARVIS, I need them now!"

"_As you wish… accessing Stark Archives, uploading now._

Harry watched as hundreds of files labelled 'TOP SECRET' filtered in through his HUD. "Good, thanks JARVIS." He brought his arms closer and increased thrust as he streaked through the air, doing well beyond Mach 5. Quickly he deleted all unnecessary blueprints and documents, they weren't what he was looking for, until he was left with what he needed to find. _Hmm, there we are… so it's based on Arc design 5.1? _"SAM, activate sensors, maximum range, filter for other Arc Reactor units of a similar wavelength." A radar appeared on his HUD and Harry corkscrewed upwards, bursting through the clouds. "Looks like there's a weak signal towards the South East," he mused as he pushed his repulsors harder, boosting towards his target. Steadily, the blip on his radar began growing bigger. "Arc Reactor signature off the charts. This must be it." As he soared further and higher, then he saw it.

It looked like an aircraft carrier, but no aircraft carrier was buoyed up by thousands of turbines, with large numbers of jets streaking around it, and certainly no aircraft carrier could match it in size. It wasn't meant to officially exist, and had Harry not known beforehand, he would never know of its existence either.

"SHIELD HQ," he thought aloud. "A heli-carrier, only one of its type, and it looks like they've got a welcoming committee." Harry deployed his flaps, braking sharply, he twisted towards the heli-carrier as the squad of F-22s moved to intercept him.

"_Unidentified vehicle, you are ordered to stand down. You are in restricted airspace, accompany us to the nearest US base or you will be treated as a hostile target."_

Harry's lip curled in a slight smirk. "Insistent aren't they?" He activated his comm. "I'm here to see Director Fury, take me to him."

"_You do not have clearance to be here. Stand down or we will fire."_

He sighed, fully confident in the capabilities of his revamped Mark III. "Too bad because that wasn't a request." With that, he accelerated straight to Mach 5, slamming into the landing pad before charging forward, bullets bouncing off his armour as he grabbed the sealed door and wrenched it open. "Hey! Anyone in this rust bucket? Oh, hi..." he watched as several squads of soldiers rushed in, aiming their rifles at him. "Don't you love goons?" Harry adjusted his strength and repulsor limiters; he didn't want to kill any of them after all, before charging forward and bowling them over.

Harry fought his way through the ranks, knocking them over one by one as he headed deeper and deeper into the heli-carrier, breaking down every obstacle in his way.

"You know, you're not making this hard for me," he commented as several turrets rose up from the floor – Harry leapt over them with the assistance of his repulsors, tearing one apart before throwing it towards another, activating his shoulder pods as he fired several missiles that destroyed the final two.

He spun around, watching as another large group of soldiers moved towards him, circling him, with the assistance of several tanks and turrets. "Bring it on."

"WAIT!"

The soldiers snapped to attention, raising a salute as they let the man pass through the ranks, a man very familiar.

"Finally, you show your face," Harry smirked as his faceplate retracted. "I thought I'd have to blow this thing apart to find you."

However Director Fury simply scowled at him before turning to one of his aides. "Why was I not informed that the so-called 'intruder' was wearing a blue and silver Iron Man suit?" he demanded. "DON'T REPLY!" He thundered, as his aide whimpered. "Now go and cancel the alert, and next time when something as BIG as an Iron Man attacks make sure I'M THE FIRST TO KNOW!" He growled, turning to his soldiers. "Well what are you waiting for? GET BACK TO YOUR POSTS!"

Harry watched with amusement as the soldiers began scurrying off, carrying the wounded away on their shoulders.

"And you," Director Fury snapped. "What the hell were you thinking? If you had killed any of my men..."

"All of my suits are built with physical limiters, it's a safety precaution to prevent excessive force," Harry stated. "Now I believe you know why I'm here."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do I?" he asked mockingly.

Harry sneered, pointing an armoured finger at him. "Don't lie. You know. You know what I am, and you know _who_ I am, from the very moment I set foot on your country."

Fury smirked. "Not bad kid, we could use someone like you. Let's talk in my office."

-IM x HP-

"SHIELD works closely with the American Ministry of Magic to avoid any... unpleasant circumstances," Fury explained. "There's a specific department in the Ministry of Magic which we have strong ties with. You could say they're our sister organisation."

"You weren't sure whether Tony knew," Harry stated. "That's why you acted like I had just appeared out of nowhere. You needed to be sure."

Fury nodded as he poured himself a glass of whiskey, drinking it in one gulp. "You know the moment our friends in the Ministry of Magic realised that Harry goddamn boy-who-lived Potter had set foot in America they were already scrambling to try and get you out without your knowledge. They're more than aware of the particular situation and getting involved in an internal overseas dispute is not good publicity."

Harry resisted slamming his fist on the table, knowing full well he would easily split it in half. "Are you serious? Voldemort is back!"

"The ambassador from the British Ministry of Magic gives us strong assurances..."

"That's absolute bull, and you know it," Harry growled.

Fury sighed, downing another glass of whiskey. "Look. I'd like to help ya. But it's not within my jurisdiction to get involved in a conflict that hasn't happened..."

"Yet. And you know it. You are SHIELD after all," Harry stated.

"It's not in America's interests to go hunting for some megalomaniac in some allied country when said country's official stance is that he does not exists!"

Harry growled, knowing that this was a lost cause. "Well fine, fat load of good this did." He turned around, preparing to get back.

"Hold up kid." Fury said thoughtfully. "Just because I can't help you doesn't mean that I can't lend a hand."

Harry frowned. "And what exactly do you mean by 'lend a hand'? If you can't give us any support..."

"Trust me I'd like to, because it's the same old song and dance," Fury smirked. "And we might have to, eventually. But for now we can give you a few... pointers."  
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Pointers?"

"I'm talking about training. Supplies. A few favours. Trust me, I've got plenty of them floating around."  
"Training?"

"Yeah. We have a few wizards who do black ops who'll be more than happy to train you. Trust me, by the end of it, you'll be fit enough to fight off an army without that Iron Man suit."

"Hmm..." It _was_ a good offer. He could use all the help he could get, not to mention top-secret military and magical training. However, he wasn't an idiot. "I'm interested; however, I know you're the kind of guy who doesn't give away freebies. So what's the catch?"

"It's simple, really. I suppose you've heard of the Avengers Initiative?"

Harry looked at him incredulously. "You serious?"

"Do I look like a guy who jokes?"

"I'm just a teenager."

"Don't give me that bull, we both know you're more than just a teenager, most teenagers don't exactly have genius level IQs, use magic or fight off armies in a robotic suit on a day-to-day basis!"

Harry smirked. "I don't think I'm much of a team player, though thanks for the offer. However, I suppose I could lend you my expertise in making some gear for SHIELD operatives..."


	11. Chapter 11

"Morning JARVIS."

"_Good morning sir. Congratulations on your successful skirmish in Pakistan, you have made the front page of forty five major newspapers in America alone as well as two hundred million websites and blogs."_

Tony yawned, sipping on some coffee. "That's less than last time, guess with Rhodey active in settling disputes in Lebanon he was bound to take some of the credit. Seriously, the 'All-American hero'? What schmuck comes up with crap like that?"

"_Do be advised sir that said 'schmuck' came up with the moniker 'Iron Man'."_

"Well, guess he didn't have it in him for second round." Tony took a deep gulp of his coffee, and nearly gagged on it as he opened his terminal. "JARVIS, what the hell is this?"

"_A Stark Industries computer terminal, specifications..."_

"Ha, ha, funny, but seriously, what the hell is this message?" Tony demanded. "I didn't access the private archives three days ago!"

"_I apologise sir, but Harry recently crossed into America and requested several files. Since you both share the same access codes, I did not see fit to inform you that he had accessed them."_

He raised an eyebrow. "Harry... passed California? Doing what? And why didn't he visit his girl?"

"_May I remind you sir that my approximate range vastly encompasses..."_

"Shut it JARVIS... why would he need to access the private archives directly, whenever he needs something he requests it," Tony frowned. "There's a reason I made a program that logs whenever the private archives are accessed, in case of outside intrusion."

BEEP! BEEP!

"_An incoming call from Scotland, sir."_

"Huh, speak of the devil," Tony mused, pulling open a holographic window. "Receive call. Hey, Harry, how's it going?"

Harry's face appeared on-screen, grinning back at him. "Hey Tony, sorry, I haven't had much of a chance to call you or Pepper."

"That's okay kid, it's Pepper you should be worried about though."

"How is she anyway?"

"The usual."

"Ah, that bad? I hope you make it up to her every night..."

"Listen, Harry," Tony quickly changed the subject in embarrassment, "did you access the private archives three days ago?"

"Yeah Tony, sorry about that, I needed to get the info I wanted immediately."

"Not a problem kid, you know there's a reason you have the same clearance I do, so what did ya need that was so important?"

"I needed the plans for the SHIELD HQ."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "The heli-carrier? What did you need that for? Surely you're not planning to build your own flying headquarters."

"Not exactly, I needed to pay Nicky a visit about our little situation back in Britain."

"Hmm, figures he'd be in the know. So found out anything?"

"Nothing much, really," Harry stated. "You can't help me unfortunately, international politics and all that, and I have to keep my activities low-key in case a smart wizard made the connection. You don't need to worry about that, though; I've completely redesigned my new armour so it's separate from the standard Iron Man suit design."

Tony snorted in laughter. "Figure you'd do that, 'bout time you stopped taking credit for my handiwork."

"Uh-uh, that was clearly me who threw that tank and you know it!" Harry retorted in the same joking manner.

"Yeah well we'll settle it once and for all, three-way fist fight, you, me and Rhodey, you dig?"

"Oh hell yes," Harry smirked. "Don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're my boss!"

"You're still getting owned – oh, I'll tell Pepper you said hi."

"You do that; I have to go now, time difference and all."

"Not a problem kiddo, see ya later!"

"Bye Tony!"

Tony sighed, leaning back in his seat as he finished his coffee. "JARVIS, pull up the plans for the Mark VII, I feel like we've got a lot of ground to cover today."

-IM x HP-

"So who's that handsome guy?" Harry picked up the _Quibbler _magazine, the front page a large picture of him giving a lady-killing grin, an almost perfect imitation of Tony's whenever he wanted to catch a girl. He flicked through it. "Huh, I'm impressed; it's word for word accurate."

"We're not the only ones reading them," Ginny stated, looking around the Great Hall. "From here it looks like everyone's got a copy as well!"

"Daddy sent me a letter; he told me that the magazines were so popular he's reprinted it for the fourth time since the first three batches have sold out," Luna commented dreamily. "He's amazed that it's more popular than the article on the Blibbering Humdinger."

Harry smirked as he glanced up. "Looks like our resident toad isn't too happy about it." The group looked up, and as expected Umbridge was fuming. Her face was red and puffy with anger as she stormed between the tables, grabbing students' copies and tearing them to shreds. "It won't do her any good, it's economics, ban an item which is wanted and you create a black market, I've already asked the twins to buy several stacks for when she inevitably bans it."

Hermione wanted to say something, possibly along the lines of scolding him for breaking what was going to be the rules, but seeing as it was Umbridge they were talking about, she merely opened her mouth, thought better, and closed it again silently.

_You're learning._ Harry reached for another sausage, feeling hungry considering his many nightly excursions and watched as a particularly familiar, pudgy hand with ugly rings slammed down on his arm. "Good morning, professor," he stated, not in the least bit unnerved. "You look bothered."

The toad had turned such a deep shade of puce that even Fudge would be hard-pressed to beat her. "Potter!" she spat angrily, waving an issue of the _Quibbler _in front of him. "What is the meaning of this?"

He grinned. "Why, that looks like a magazine toa... I mean ma'am." The Gryffindors around him attempted to hold in their sniggers at his deliberate slip of the tongue.

"I could see you expelled for this!" she fumed, her fingers tightening around his arm.

"No you can't," he stated, his grin turning into a smirk. "Now take your hand off my arm."

"And why can't I do that Potter?" she demanded, her tone sickly sweet.

"You didn't hear me. Get your _hand_ off my _arm_," Harry growled. When she made no effort to remove the offending limb, he reached down and brought his crushing grip to bear. The toad gave a screech as he tightened his grip, and pulled her fat digits off him.

"Potter! D-D-Detention! Detention for the rest of the year!"

"Sorry, I have better things to do," he stated casually as he slung his bag across his shoulder and walked off, making sure to deliberately bump into her.

"That's it Potter, I've had enough! By the end of the day I'll see you with your wand snapped and expelled!" The woman screamed, loud enough to be heard by everyone in the Great Hall.

Harry raised a finger. "No, you can't. One: the school has no power over what I choose to do outside it; therefore I am well within my rights to appear in any magazines I choose, especially since I am a public figure. You can't expel me on those grounds anyway since there are no rules over giving interviews, considering how idiotic it is to ban it." He raised another finger. "Two: It is against school regulations for teachers to manhandle a student without permission. I requested you remove the offending appendage from my arm, as you did not, I was well within my rights to remove it myself. The fact that we are not in a classroom means that you have no power to make such decisions, even as High Inquisitor, you still need to obey the rules." He smirked. "You're not above the law, Umbridge." With that, he left, walking to his first class.

He was quickly joined by Neville and Ron, who ran to catch up with him. "You know you're bloody mad, right?" Ron said with a grin. "Bloody mad, in a genius way! Mate, that was brilliant!"

"You should have seen her when you left," Neville added, sporting a matching grin. "She was spluttering so hard, and then Professor McGonagall rubbed it in her face when she asked what was wrong!"

Harry smiled, knowing of the animosity that most of the teachers harboured towards Umbridge, Snape included. "Nice."

At that moment Hermione caught up to them. "That was a reckless stunt you pulled..." she began, "and I don't like it, but congratulations Harry, you've successfully driven her off the deep end."

"She went off the deep end a while ago," Harry answered.

"I hope you're not planning anything like that for a while..."

"Considering she's going to be gunning for me every chance she gets?" Harry paused. "How about tomorrow?"

Hermione shook her head in exasperation as the rest of them burst into laughter.

-IM x HP-

Umbridge's animosity towards Harry now fuelled dozens of new attempts to get Harry detentions, expulsions or preferably to maim or kill him. With her new little Inquisitorial squad on the loose, Umbridge had been on the warpath, and he had no doubt she had given them strict instructions to hunt him down, using any excuse they could to get him in trouble. He had heard plenty of stories of what went on in her 'detentions', and frankly had better things to do.

Thankfully he had managed to stay out of her way, using the school's many secret passages or in some cases using the Room of Requirement to make passages to where they needed to go. The few times the Inquisitorial squad had caught them, verbally trying to push him to make a mistake, Harry had managed to either ignore or twist their words and turn them on the abusers.

Umbridge had made several goes at him during her lesson (or as Harry and his friends called it, their free resting period), making many not-too-subtle suggestions ranging from Voldemort to delusions of grandeur to attention-seeking. Harry had responded with plenty of subtle implications in his words, cleverly concealing their true meaning though to those in the class the meaning was perfectly clear.

"So Harry, you going to stay with Snuffles for Christmas?" Ginny asked as the group sat in the Hogwarts train, watching the scenery fly by.

He nodded. "I doubt my kind and considering relatives would want me back for Christmas, it's really only logical. Don't worry, I'll come over to your place soon enough."

Hermione huffed. "You could run away like you did this summer though."

Harry shook his head. "I don't need to run away again. I found what I was looking for."

Luna stuck her head out from the latest issue of the _Quibbler_, her eyes briefly focusing on Harry's. "And what was that?"

He smiled. "Hope."

"Come on, kid, he's waitin' for ya," Moody grunted as he watched Harry roll his trunk towards them.

"Hey Harry," Tonks greeted with a grin. "Don't let Moody's grouchiness spoil your fun, you know he's still a little touchy about that whole sham last year."

"Funny, Nymphadora."

"DON'T call me Nymphadora!" Tonks growled, her hair flashing red as they got into a non-descript car.

"So what's been happening while I've been at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, greeting Remus as he strapped himself in.

"Aside from Arthur getting killed by Voldemort's pet snake?" Tonks asked rhetorically.

"Don't get snarky," Moody answered. "Fudge has cut funding to the Auror department, funding that the department is running low on these days. In addition, he's boosted the Auror presence around the Ministry, which means…"  
"Less Aurors out there," Harry finished. "Is this Malfoy's doing?"

Moody scowled. "No. That slimy bugger's probably busy working for his master. Besides, it looks like Fudge doesn't need any help being paranoid, he's doing just fine on his own."

Harry contemplated this silently. _Time's going fast – Voldemort's going to move soon, and this time, he'll have a whole army behind him while we sit and cower. I have to move soon and force his hand otherwise it'll be a massacre for our side. Not to mention I have to clear Sirius's name. _He mentally snorted. _All in a day's work huh?_

The car stopped, and Moody and Tonks went out first to check if it was clear before waving them inside.

"Harry!" Sirius was waiting for him in the living room, and the two embraced in a manly hug. "How's everything been at Hogwarts?"

"Not good." Sirius led him to a seat as Harry launched into a description of what had happened at Hogwarts since they had last spoken. At the end of it, Sirius looked grim. "So Umbridge is gaining more and more power. This isn't good – one final push and she could easily oust Dumbledore and take his position."

Harry frowned. "I don't think so. Whilst Dumbledore's been lying low, I haven't, and when she inevitably finds out about our little club she'll try and push to have me expelled, which, undoubtedly, she will."

"Merlin, Harry, I thought I told you to be careful!"

"Don't worry, if all goes well, I'll be reinstated as a student and people will know for a fact that he's back," Harry smirked.

"Oh boy," Sirius groaned, flopping into his chair. "I know that look, it's the same look James got when he was about to pull something crazy off."

"Damn straight. Don't worry Sirius; I won't cause much property damage – this time, at least."

-IM x HP-

"_Merry Christmas, Harry!"_

"Some Christmas get-together, huh Karen?"

"_I've had worse. Hey, I knew this was going to be a 'long distance' gig."_

Harry sighed. "I know, but still..."

"_Cheer up baby, you'll see me summer anyway! So what's everyone up to?"_

"Well the Weasleys have come over, they're downstairs getting ready for lunch, and we've opened all the presents this morning, Ron interrupted my sleep to do so," Harry said glumly, before laughing slightly at the irony.

"_Oh, that reminds me, I need to get you your Christmas present!"_

"Wait, Karen, you don't have to, heck I forgot..."

She pouted. _"You forgot my present?"_

"Oh hell, Karen, I..."

"_Don't worry about it, you've done more than enough for me this year! Anyway, you should be receiving a file about now."_

"Got it." Harry typed in a few commands and opened the new attachment – only to blush and duck as he quickly hit the 'exit' key. "K-K-Karen! You..."

She gave a sultry smile. _"You like it?"_

"How did you sneak that lingerie by Tony?"

"_You're joking, that man can't see anything other than Pepper and his own ego."_

"Good point," Harry conceded. "Say hi for me will you? I don't think I'll have the time to call them today."

She sighed, knowing exactly what he was going do. _"You know you're a compulsive workaholic right?"_

"What can I say, it's what you like best about me," Harry retorted.

Karen burst into laughter. _"You've got me there. Alright, I better go, gotta meet up with a_ _few girlfriends..."_

Harry frowned. "Wait, aren't you..."

"_Don't worry, my dad has no idea where I am and I trust my friends not to rat me out. Bye Harry!"_

"Bye..." Harry switched off the link, his frown never leaving his face. Whilst he had no doubts to Karen's shady past, Harry was not one to pry. He trusted her. _So why do I feel so suspicious all of a sudden? _

He shook it off, standing up. "SAM, pull up the satellite." The console gave a beep as a holographic projection showed up of magical Britain. "Zoom in on the trace..." he watched as a reticule appeared over an area before homing in, showing a dense group of clusters. "The clusters have grown," he mused thoughtfully. "Significantly. Residual dark magic traces have also increased, SAM, do a full scan of the site and the area within 100 miles, cross-reference with all known maps, satellite images and inhabitations near it."

"_Done, Harry." _The holographic image swivelled and broke up, separating into several layers showing the entire land layout. _"There are no structures within the adjacent area. It is completely isolated from civilisation, and Mage Vision scanners detect the presence of numerous wards." _

"They won't be difficult; it's clearly a temporary post. How's the new armour holding up to the tests?"

"_There are still some difficulties in crystal synthesis, for that reason, I highly recommend avoiding an extended skirmish." _

"I don't think I'll be there for too long anyway." Harry said, slipping on his jacket. "Run the simulations on best point of entry and attack SAM, I'm heading downstairs." He frowned as he came out of his trunk, which automatically closed, and opened the door to come face to face with an exasperated Hermione.

"Harry, where were you? I've been knocking at this door for five minutes!" she yelled in annoyance.

"Sorry," Harry said, brushing past her. "I've been busy."

At that Hermione rounded on him furiously. "Harry, I've bloody had it! I've been patient and quiet, like you asked me to, the background person, but if you don't tell me what you've been doing I'll..."

"Tell Dumbledore?" Harry shot at her. "Good one, at this point even he can't stop me."

"Stop you from what Harry? What in Merlin's name is going on?" Hermione growled, struggling to keep up with Harry's powerful pace as he walked down the stairs.

"Nothing much, you know, just pissing Umbridge off, the usual..."

"Don't you give me that!"

But Harry, as usual, brushed it off and ignored her, much to Hermione's chagrin.

-IM x HP-

The ride back to the castle was rather awkward. Hermione had glared at him for the duration of the short break, and even as they got back into Hogwarts she continued to glare angrily at the back of his head, as if somehow she would take the secrets from it which so desperately eluded her, though she had plenty of other things on her plate, such as the build up to OWLs.

It was during one of these relaxing days that Harry found himself being wrenched from his enticing breakfast by a certain fat toad – he would've stunned her, but seeing as she was leading him to the Headmaster's office he would see where this played out.

"Ah, good morning Headmaster," Harry greeted, turning to the two Aurors and Fudge in surprise. "I see we have guests." He frowned at Dumbledore's worried face. "What's up Fudgy?"

Said 'Fudgy' bristled at him, before his face settled back into its look of glee. "Potter, I have you now! We've caught your extracurricular club, as you like to call it, but we both really know what it is don't we?"

"No, don't tell me, a group therapy session?" Harry asked sarcastically, plopping himself into a seat, finding his fingers fascinating. "So who was it?"  
"We have certain sources..."

"Ah, I thought so. Marietta Edgecombe, eh? I thought she'd crack."

"Listen here, Potter, that's no way to speak to the Minister like that!" Umbridge screeched, even as she looked at him in shock, wondering how on Earth he knew. "It's true, Cornelius! We even have a list to prove it!"

As she handed it to him, Fudge merely took a glance at it before his gleeful look returned. "So, Potter's Army eh? I see now you really are a delirious attention-seeker! What makes you think a group of brainwashed teenagers can replace real Aurors?"

"Speaking of real Aurors, where'd you put that money from the Auror department into anyway Fudgy? I must say, that's a spiffy new suit you're sporting..."

"Potter, I don't like your allegations!" Fudge spluttered. "Aurors, arrest him, and snap his wand! He is hereby expelled from Hogwarts! Put this brat in Azkaban where he belongs!"

Dumbledore rounded on him furiously. "Cornelius you have gone too far! To even think of putting a boy in Azkaban, without a trial no less!"

Harry raised a hand, silencing him. "It's fine, Dumbledore, I can see that it's no use. However, what makes you think I'll come quietly?"

Fudge sneered. "And how do you think you can stop two fully-trained Aurors, boy?"

"One..." in the blink of an eye Harry had stunned the first, ducking to avoid the disarming curse before snapping out another powerful stunner. "Two! Bye, Fudgy, Toad," he waved, and threw his wand forward, as an invisible force slammed two on his top four most hated people list into the wall, knocking them unconscious. "Well, looks like I gotta run Professor."

"Harry, wait!" Dumbledore cried. "I'll have Fawkes..."

"No need, I've already found a place to hole up," Harry said dismissively, waving his hand as he stepped down and began walking back to the Chamber.

By now class had already started, and as he rounded a corner he bumped into the person he most certainly did not want to see.

Snape was filled with glee, now was a chance to get revenge! "Potter, out of class eh?"

_Hmm, well since I've already hit Fudgy and Toady without retribution..._ Harry shrugged, and smirked at the Potions professor. "Ever heard of a muggle stunner, Snape?"

Snape frowned in confusion, before WHAM! A nasty uppercut sent him reeling to the ground, and if his luck held up, he would get a broken nose.

Harry grinned as he ran off, the greasy bastard's wand was still stuck on a plaque in the Gryffindor Common Room, and so it looked like he got away with it!

-IM x HP-

"_Harry, I do not recommend that you use the armour for an actual skirmish, there are still many tests to run..."_

"SAM, don't forget what Tony likes to say in these situations," Harry stated coolly as he stepped into the boots, before multiple mechanical arms rapidly assembled the new armour around him. "Sometimes you have to run before you can walk."

"_Logically that is highly incorrect..."_

"SAM..." Harry closed his eyes as the helmet snapped into place around his head, and opened them to a glowing green HUD with dozens of readings. "Shut up."

Harry clanked forward, testing several motions as he balled his fists tightly, feeling the power coursing through the new armour.

Like Tony, it was painted red and gold, however the colours were significantly darker and the gold was more of an orange-gold. It was sleeker and more form-fitting, and the lines connecting the armour plates seemed almost seamlessly blended into the suit, as they occasionally coursed blue.

The suit was predominantly red, and the gold served to accent its contours and shape, and the faceplate was blank, losing the line that 'hinted' at a human face, aside from two glowing receptors.

The whole composition seemed more organic, hinting more at a bodysuit than a suit of mechanical armour, however it was no less powerful, and with the gleaming refractory coating, it looked absolutely intimidating.

"_Harry, I have checked the weather forecast, there is meant to be fog and cloud all night."_

"Good," he answered grimly. "It's a perfect night for hunting."

With that, he fired his thrusters and headed out.

Anyone who happened to be in the stratosphere at that moment would have no doubt noticed the blue comet zipping through the skies at a ridiculous speed. "This is insane!" Harry yelled in elation. "It's responding to my every thought! I've got perfect control!" he narrowed his eyes. "SAM, let's really put it to the test! Maximum velocity!" He locked his arms together as his emitters giving off a blazing bright blue trail turned into infernos, and with a whoosh he rocketed even faster towards his destination.

"_Harry, you are approaching the target destination."_

"That quickly?" Pushing away his surprise, Harry narrowed his eyes. "SAM, activate attack mode. Mark out the battle zone and sync with the Mage Vision satellite." Watching through his HUD, he suddenly saw over a dozen clusters light up beneath the clouds, and an orange perimeter showing the battle zone. The whole interface changed, showing a list, from SPELL INVENTORY, SPELL TEMPLATE, to RITUALS at the bottom.

With a thought Harry picked out the spells he wanted for immediate use, and smirked. "It's show time. Powering emitters!"

He landed in the middle of the Death Eater group with a heavy metallic clang, and all hell broke loose.

The Death Eaters may have been fresh recruits but they weren't stupid, and began firing at once, pelting him with hundreds of spells – a blue bubble surrounded him, the spells bouncing off harmlessly as he raised his arms, and small pods began revealing themselves all over his body, before he answered with a monstrous onslaught of magical blasts, throwing his enemies as he paced back and forth, firing in every direction. Swiftly he sidestepped a killing curse, and made a superhuman leap forward, burying his fist in another Death Eater and sending him flying back into another group that moved to engage him.

Harry charged after them as energy swords spouted from his arms, giving off a high-pitched whistle as he slashed through wave after waves of enemies, never stopping, never relenting, never giving them a chance. He jerked around, firing off a magical missile the size of a cannonball that detonated once it hit its target, exploding with such a concussive force it sent everybody flying.

"_Harry, barrage of killing curses at five o'clock!"_

"Engage countermeasures!" Harry ducked down as chutes in his suit opened, sending out pieces of shrapnel at high speed that intercepted the curses far before they could do anything. He jumped up, firing his own barrage of curses at blistering machine-gun pace before firing his thrusters into the crowd, his blue blades igniting as he cut into his enemies with deadly, pinpoint accuracy.

"_There are still a consider number rapidly converging on your position, they are attempting to outflank you!"_

Harry looked around, weighing his decisions quickly. "There's still plenty of cloud cover! Pop some smokes, we're heading for the air!" As a smokescreen formed around him, he shot into the air, obscured by the clouds before doing a fly-by of the battle zone. "SAM, the wards were broken by my signal interference emitters, can you accurately pinpoint the remaining enemies' locations?"

"_Patching through to satellite… done sir." _

Suddenly over fifty targets lit up on his radar, and Harry grinned. "Let's go for some aerial bombardment!"

His arms started glowing as he aimed downwards, and began firing large spheres of energy towards his enemy. Obscured by cloud, nonetheless from the flashes of electric blue light he knew that each of them landed.

Harry stopped, flying directly into a cloud. "Let's give them the shock of their lives."

Using the cloud as a conductor, he fired off arcs of electricity, letting them head for the ground in the form of strikes of lightning. He kept this up for a minute before he paused, and gently landed back on Earth.

"_We are down to fifteen percent power Harry."_

"It went by quickly. There's still more than enough to get back though." Harry answered as he scanned the warzone. "And it looks like…" he clanked forward, grabbing a badly burnt Death Eater, hefting him up to face him. He turned on his external speakers. "I could kill you just as I killed all of them, but I'm letting you live," Harry stated, his true voice muffled to become metallic. "I want you to find your master and let him know that the war has begun, and there is a soldier more than ready enough to take the fight to him. And make sure of it, there will be heavy casualties for your side unless he shows his slimy snake face and I can end it once and for all."

-IM x HP-

A/N: Apologies for the delay. I've been thinking of doing another crossover, a Batman/Harry one, as I was suddenly struck with an interesting way to do it. For the reviewers who occasionally demand that I finish my older stories – most likely they will stay unfinished, especially since most of them are a year or two old. I have improved my writing skills since their inceptions, and to be frank some of them are embarrassing. Perhaps one day I might go back over them, but not for the foreseeable future. As of this moment they are virtually all abandoned, unless someone would like to adopt one of them – please review me if you want to since I don't read my inbox.


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